Amthane dam gates fixed, Bardez to get water today

Panaji: Water resources department (WRD) finally managed to fix the jammed gates of the Amthane dam, which had left Bardez with one-third its required water supply for the last seven days.

The water was finally released from the dam to the Assonora water treatment plant by 5am on Wednesday and supply to all of Bardez is expected to normalise by Thursday morning.

However, taking a serious note of the negligence on part of the WRD, responsible for maintenance of the dam gates, chief minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that strict action will be taken against the engineer responsible.

“All of Bardez faced water shortage for the last seven days, I also express regret for it. Tillari canal had breached and water to Goa could not be released. The alternative arrangement was supply of water from found Amthane dam,” the CM said.

“But engineers found the Amthane dam gates jammed. I have sought an inquiry into it. I have asked for responsibility to be fixed on the engineer concerned. Gates were jammed for seven days. I was waiting for the gates to be fixed. Strict action will be taken against the engineer responsible,” the CM said.

The left-bank canal of Tillari dam was breached at Kudase in Maharashtra and the repair works are on. Maharashtra govt officials who have said the work will be completed latest by Feb 1. During such emergencies, the Amthane dam was to be the alternate source of raw water to water treatment plants in Bardez.

Water pumped from Sal was used to meet some of the requirements. However, this was 40MLD, only one-third of the 120MLD requirement of Bardez taluka.

WRD officials have now said that with raw water supply to Assonora water treatment plant restored, the plant was functioning at normal capacity by Wednesday evening. They said that the supply will begin to parts of Bardez from Wednesday night and supply to the entire taluka will normalise by Thursday morning.

Due to the water shortage, one school in Bardez even declared a holiday for a day.

Fatima DeSa, managing trustee of Holy Family School, Socorro, said, “We had given a holiday to one section of the school on Tuesday, only for one day. We have never experienced such a severe shortage of water before. I had informed the department. There was no drinking water and I did not want the children to fall sick. Now, the water supply is expected by Wednesday night.”

A few other schools had also shut before their usual time to deal with the drinking water shortage.