Goa thirsts for water
With the sweltering summer marching on Goa is scared of the impending drought, if rain does not have mercy on the State. The village wells are already drying up. In several villages the taps have run dry and water is being distributed through water tankers every alternate day. Moreover, Goa didn't experience the usual April showers this year.
The problem echoed at Penha-da-Franca secretariat. The government, however, advises the public need not to worry unduly, and the too media is being blamed for "exaggerating" the water shortage. The Leader of Opposition, Pratapsingh Rane, complained that even surgeries at the Goa Medical College had to be cancelled at the eleventh hour because taps run dry any moment.
Every new year the dry date seems to be advancing more and more. The water level at Opa Water Works plunged to one of the lowest levels of 147 cms on March 15 (first time since 1992). By March 12 the level dipped to a perilous low of 153 cms. A drop below 120 cms will turn off pumps at the Opa plant.
Assurances don't comfort the villagers from Pernem to Canacona, with fast drying wells and water bodies in scores of villages threatening a severe water scarcity.
The South Goa's water woes heighten consistently the water supply (57 MLD) available being insufficient to meet the burgeoning demand (63 MLD approximately). As if the vagaries of weather are not sufficient, water supply to South Goa gets disrupted with the Selaulim bursting once too often. The Khandepar river level too has been dropping sharply each day, posing a serious threat to Tiswadi and Ponda. Scarcity bedevils Sanvordem too. In fact, families from areas like Dharbandora are said to be contemplating a shift to conducive areas.
Water scarcity hit Bardez by the third week of March, with the supply of drinking water being halved. Bardez needs 65 million litres, with five hours of supply daily, but the Water department can pump out merely 35 million litres per day.
The government has undertaken a plan of laying an 11-km long MS pipeline from Selaulim to Kalay river at a cost of about Rs.11 crore in view of the anticipated water crisis in North Goa. Of course, one does not know at what stage the progress is at.
Goa, with nine rivers and abundant rain, except during the last year's monsoons, should have never faced drought situations. Proper water management of water resources is the only answer to the sad situation. Goa has several fresh water springs, several age-old tanks and nearly 400 lakes. Desilted and maintained properly, these would provide additional water during times like these.
Extraction of ground water through wells in scheduled areas will be regulated, after the Goa Ground Water Regulation Rules, 2003, are notified. The Act was passed in January last year and will be notified too, but will it be implemented in word and spirit?
In Goa, water is already a serious topic of discussion at workshops and seminars. The freshwater aquifers in coastal areas are in danger of being irreversibly filled with saline water if rainwater is not harvested and allowed to percolate into the ground, according to Sekar Raghavan, the Director of the Rain Centre, Chennai. He disclosed this ominous information during his address at a workshop on "Rainwater Harvesting" held at the St Xavier's College in Mapusa in March.
It is quite natural that even NRIs as far as Canada have been worried out Goa's water situation. They wonder whether their expertise could be of any help for ancestral Goa to tide over the drought as well as avert the danger of the ground water table in the coastal region being affected by saline water, if the information is true.

Mando lossing ground
The universal trend wherein the classical music and dance has been overtaken by pop music, has affected Goa too, particular in the sad case of the traditional folksong "Mando". When music was taught in parochial schools and people gathered in the village environs to celebrate a wedding, feast or a party, it was the mando which danced on the lips of the community. With composers of good music and lyrics, becoming rare, the mando appears to have lost its charm and shine to modern audiences. Of course, in Goa, a couple of organisations have been giving ian mpetus to it through annual competitions and mando festivals. But these are just one-time affairs for the competing groups to come together and rehearse. Western music took over the wedding scene long ago and during last couple years, there are even Hindi songs being played by famous bands at the weddings. And the gold old mando is reserved only for the "portonnem", when the guests and family members return home at the end of the wedding reception.

ARCHBISHOP'S CALL
In his May Day message to the people, the Archbishop-Patriarch of Goa, Dr Raul N Gonsalves, called upon people to identify workers under constant pressures, accompany them, in their struggle for solutions, collaborate with people of goodwill who form organisations or movements, which work for restoration of the rights of the workers. May 1, the day dedicated to the workers all universally, is being also celebrated by the Catholic Church as the feast of St Joseph every year. To work and earn a living is one of the basic human rights, the source of which is the sacredness and dignity of every person since "each person is created in the image and likeness of God," the Archbishop said while laying emphasis on the impact of liberalisation on Goa. Dr Gonsalves lamented that in recent years thousands of people have lost their jobs in the agricultural and industrial sector because of the recession in industry. Moreover, the service sector has not been able to absorb the unemployed because they are not sufficiently skilled. He also said that contractualisation in the unorganised sector has enforced competition as well as job insecurity. He urged people to strive for the elimination of child labour and to bring pressure upon the labour department to enact laws to abolish contract labour and encourage and motivate youth to undertake self-employment. The Archbishop said that the major factors in globalization phenomenon include a multi-polar world, an eagerness to accept the new form of liberal capitalism and multiplication of communication technologies.

Toddy tapping has no buyers
If the easy availability of Goa's coconut feni round-the-year is to be taken as a yardstick, toddy tapping would definitely appear lucrative, if not the most thriving occupation. Statistics, however, speak otherwise for this traditional occupation. Salcete, which once had the highest concentration of toddy tappers, today has only 600 of them. The rest are spread in the two border talukas of Pernem and Canacona and other areas of the state. Large scale adulteration of coconut feni; rigours attached to the occupation, lack of social status and high cost of labour are some of the factors that has forced many to give up the occupation. Says Gaspar Afonso, the president of All Goa Toddy Tappers Association, "It's hard to believe, but true that toddy tapping has seen a declining trend over the years." (Guilherme Almeida in Herald/ 29 apr 2003)

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