Eco-vulnerable status exhorted for Goa

PANAJI: The Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan (MBA) has urged the state government to work towards securing a status of 'ecologically vulnerable' state for Goa at national and international level in order to safeguard its existing freshwater resources, ecosystems and biodiversity.

Considering the global warming, climate change and sea level rise scenario, it has been predicted that Goa will be submerged by four to five per cent as the state���s coast is ecologically fragile. The state policies therefore need to factor in these valid concerns, said MBA vice-president Dr Nandkumar Kamat.

"As the United Nations has treated access to water as a human rights issue, the state government should be conscious of people���s entitlement in decision making. Water resources belong to the people and privatising it for profit should not be allowed," he added.

The MBA has demanded that the national water policy (1987 revised) should be revised in consultation with stake holders in view of unfavourable areas for storage, limited groundwater availability and rapid urbanisation. "Similarly, the state water policy, November 2000, is dormant and needs activation for schemes beneficial to people, said Kamat.

The Abhiyan has also stated that a white paper on precarious ecological conditions of nine river basins, polluted channels of these rivers, lakes, reservoirs and other water bodies is the need of the hour.

Discouraging water guzzling industries and services, construction of dams in ecologically and biologically sensitive areas of western ghats; securing, providing and guaranteeing water security for future, pro-tection of traditional water harvesting sources is very important, the MBA has stressed.