Panaji without water supply for sixth day

PANAJI: The Goa capital’s water woes turned into a crisis on Tuesday as there was no supply for the sixth day severely crippling everyday life. Some schools, including those with special children, declared a holiday, while hotels asked guests to use water very sparingly.

At Goa Medical College (GMC), the state’s premier public health institution, relatives of patients were seen lugging cans of water from home and using packaged water for all purposes.

“We have to bring water from home. How will my daughter manage? All the taps are dry,” a patient’s mother said.

The state government floundered repeatedly, adding to the misery and confusion of residents as every promise to restore supply was flouted, and a new deadline set. After having promised to restore water supply within three days by fixing the broken pipeline on August 15, chief minister Pramod Sawant said it would resume on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, PWD minister Deepak Pauskar said the work was “almost over” and Panaji would get water supply by Wednesday.

On Sunday, a mosque close to Panaji asked devotees to perform their ablutions at home, and at least one citizen in the neighbouring borough of St Cruz told TOI he had to skip Mass as he didn’t bathe for days.

“We have a private well which is contaminated, and we’re using that water to flush our toilets,” he said.

When the crisis began last Thursday, residents resorted to sourcing water from wherever they could, including dirty creeks and springs.

Sawant’s solution was to ask citizens to call the PWD, who he claimed would provide tankers free of cost. It took TOI five calls to get through to a PWD official, who cut the call midway to answer another one.

While tankers made hay, even they had to switch off their mobiles as the deluge of calls became too cumbersome to deal with.

“The government has no plan B in place and no strategy to tackle a water problem like this,” said Elvis de Souza of Ribandar, a suburb of Panaji.