Dabolim residents move rights panel over contaminated water

Panaji: Residents of the Dabolim-based housing complex, Prabhu Violetta, have filed a complaint with Goa Human Rights Commission seeking its urgent intervention in the issue of contamination of drinking water supply to the complex that has affected at least 200 residents, including newborn babies, pregnant women, and senior citizens residing there.

They stated that they have been afflicted by chronic diarrhoea, with several cases clinically diagnosed and confirmed as typhoid.

The builder supplying water only for a few hours in the day and refusing supply at night constitutes a grave deficiency of service and direct denial of residents’ basic human rights, they told the commission.

The complaint stated that the state failed to ensure proper monitoring of STP and water supply infrastructure of this housing project before and after its commissioning, and failed to prevent contamination despite the fact that the right to safe drinking water is a facet of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The complaint, signed by 240 residents, is seeking the setting up of a commission of inquiry headed by a retired judge to investigate the role and responsibility of the builder/promoter, the Goa State Pollution Control Board, the water resources department, the local panchayat, and other agencies in the contamination of the water.

It is also seeking the inquiry to identify lapses in monitoring, approvals and enforcement of environmental and public health norms and disciplinary, administrative, and criminal action wherever necessary, including against errant officials whose negligence contributed to the “public health disaster”.

The residents are further seeking directions to the state to ensure 24x7 safe drinking water through managed tankers or pipe-borne supply, pending restoration of fully safe infrastructure.

Reimbursement and compensation for medical expenses, loss of wages, and other hardship expenses caused by the prolonged water-contamination crisis is among their demands too.

They have asked that the authorities concerned immediately decontaminate, repair, re-test, and recommission the STP and water supply system so that it conforms with all statutory and technical standards before any further use. Residents are also seeking periodic and independent water quality testing, with the results available to them.