Panaji: As a child growing up in Vaddem, Catalino Pereira remembers a time when he and his friends would jump and frolic in the Merces creek. Fish used to dart freely beneath the surface, and children swam without a care. Pereira and his peers have watched the water body’s condition deteriorate over decades.
“When I was young, this creek was everything to us,” Pereira said. “The water was so clear you could see straight to the bottom. It was alive.”
Today, the tidal water body located at Merces Waddo at Vaddem is contaminated, its banks littered with plastic bottles, discarded cloth and the direct release of sewage from homes along the embankment.
The retaining walls have fallen into a state of disrepair so severe that residents fear further deterioration with every passing monsoon season. Residents want authorities to give the creek the same attention as given to Mala lake and the Miramar lake, where fish were found dead just two weeks earlier.
Daniel D'Souza, a local resident, said that the sewage pumping station at Vaddem has been malfunctioning for over a year. “They have four pumps, but just one pump is functioning right now. Untreated sewage is being released into the creek. Many homes along the bank of the creek also lack septic tanks and the waste is being released directly into the water,” said D’Souza.
An official in charge of the sewage pumping station said that the lone functioning pump can operate for just one hour at a stretch and has to be switched off intermittently to ensure that it does not break down.
The turning point, according to D’Souza, came with the rapid construction of new residential and commercial buildings in and around Merces Vaddem. As the locality grew, so too did the pressure on its natural environment.
“The laterite embankments and retaining walls are old, and in many places those stones have been washed away and eroded. No maintenance has been done. The creek is full of mud, plastic, water hyacinth and rubbish. If this water body has to be restored, it has to be dredged. There are a lot of funds available from central and state authorities for taking up this work, but willpower is lacking,” said Dr. Rosario Menezes, a paediatrician living close by.
Local residents have complained the release of untreated sewage is contaminating nearby wells. A well water sample tested by directorate of health services in May found that the well water is “contaminated with high levels of coliform and therefore the water cannot be recommended for human consumption.”
In the aftermath of a large number of fish dying in Mala lake and Miramar lake, instructions were issued to seal off all illegal sewerage lines emptying into water bodies. “That scope has to be expanded to this Creek,” said Menezes.
