Pollution board told to assess the Tar & Khandepar

PANAJI: The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) has asked the Goa State

Pollution Control Board

(GSPCB) to study the impact mud-filling has had on the

Khandepar

river in Ponda and

Tar

river in Mapusa. It has reiterated that environmental compensation be recovered based on the ‘polluter pays’ principle.


The coastal authority had received a complaint from an NGO, Vanashakti, in January, alleging pollution in the Khandepar river due to the dumping of mud for the construction of a bandhara sans the requisite permissions.

After the water resources department (WRD) informed the GCZMA that the mud had been removed, the latter inspected the site and took a written undertaking from the

WRD

that the soil extracted from the Khandepar river and dumped on its banks would be shifted to an appropriate location.

At a subsequent meeting held on May 10, the coastal authority ‘decided to issue general directions to the

PWD

, WRD and other state departments not to undertake any river filling without prior NOC from the GCZMA’.

In February, a similar incident came to light at the Tar river in Mapusa, when a WRD contractor dumped mud into the waterbody to mobilise machinery required to desilt it.