Brimming Bondvol lake found emptied, villagers shaken up

Panaji: The Calapur comunidade office-bearers and Santa Cruz villagers found the filled-to-capacity Bondvol lake drained of all its water on Friday.

The earthen dam built just over a century ago during the Portuguese era at Vhoddlem Bhat had been notified as a wetland by Goa State Wetland Authority (GSWA) a few years ago.

When the comunidade president Vincent Fernandes and treasurer Menino Araujo visited the lake to inspect a fallen tree on Friday evening, they were shocked to see that the entire lake was almost empty.

“The water of the lake had been stored without being released for the past five years, but nothing of this sort had happened,” said Peter Gonsalves, the special attorney of Calapur comunidade. He added, “This is a very serious matter and we are in the process of filing a complaint with police and other authorities, demanding strict action against the miscreants.”

The office-bearers of the comunidade informed GSWA and the water resources department about the emptying of the lake by miscreants even as the legal aspects are being looked into.

The 22-metre hilltop dam irrigated 120 hectares of agricultural land below it and villagers would raise two crops and vegetables during the days of glory a few decades ago.

The wetland authority had engaged the stakeholders in a consultation on June 12, 2019, to declare this shoe-shaped lake as a wetland and considered their suggestions and objections.

“The lake with a total area of 84,043 sqm is considered critically significant for its ecosystem services and biodiversity values for the local communities and society at large,” the notification stated.

With the declaration, activities within the wetland and their zone of influence were to be regulated by the government.

The local community had to fight hard to save the lake and high court of Bombay at Goa had directed the government to constitute a task force to prepare a road map for its conservation.


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