Flooding in Panaji

Panaji: Incessant rains coupled with high tide threw things out of gear in the capital city. Panaji’s commercial street 18th June Road was left so inundated that it was shut for traffic on Thursday evening. Water entered several shops on the street paralyzing business.

The fire and emergency services were on their toes and received more than 20 calls from Panaji and surrounding areas.

A tree that came crashing down on a house in the vicinity of Goa university caused damage to the tune of Rs 1.50 lakh.

Water entered the homes surrounding in low lying Mala and despite water being pumped out, the high tide didn’t provide any relief for residents.

Water continued to enter the homes of citizens around Mala lake on Thursday evening. One citizen Suhas Naik said family life and appliances including his fridge and washing machine were affected when all the rooms of his house were flooded.

“The problem that he has been facing since his childhood as a has only gotten worse over the years. I won’t be able to send my daughter to school tomorrow as she wasn’t able to complete her homework because our house was flooded,” he told TOI, as he was waiting for low tide to get rid of the water that entered his home.

Naik said the only solution is for the government to follow the footsteps of the Andhra Pradesh government and raise their houses.

“The government must take the initiative and through the WRD must raise the houses to the height of the road to provide relief to people. Who will compensate us for our appliances,” he asked.

Local corporator Menino D’Cruz said pumping the water out into the creek didn’t help because of the high tide.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On 18th June Road calls were made to the traffic police to block the commercial street for traffic after water began entering a number of shops including cane shops, garment stores and kitchen appliance stores.

Former mayor of Panaji Yatin Parekh said calls were made to stop traffic on the street to prevent more water from entering the stores. “I don’t blame it on the high tide but on the excess rainfall that hit the state ,” he adds that plastic choking drains and the mayor and commissioner at loggerheads during the pre-monsoon works didn’t help the situation.

“The existing drains were not properly cleaned. In addition to this the city needs more drains to be built and more and outlets for water,” he said.

The vendors whose business was affected couldn’t even shut their shops for the fear of the water levels rising. Many used wooden plans to stop the water from entering and were able to shut shop only post high tide and after the water receded.

Mayor Uday Madkaikar said the water at Mala, 18th June road, Miramar and other areas receded only after the high tide between 6 pm to 9 pm. Denying that drains were not properly cleaned he said three rounds of drainage cleaning were carried out by the CCP. He blamed the high tide together with the incessant rains for the flooding.