The Accidental Activist - How to start a protest – Part II
By Venita Coelho
There are only two things that politicians take heed of. One is bad press, the other are crowds. When you have an issue that needs action you need to work out two strategies simultaneously. One to get lots of press attention. The other to build critical mass. It is not enough to have one press conference – you need to network with the press, make them see your point of view, co-ordinate so that a series of follow up articles keeps the matter alive. If you can manage to get into the national press then you will really get our netas to sit up and take notice. Dedicate one person who is articulate and persistent to be your press liason. Her number will have to be on day and night. Get the simple things correct – press releases in both English and Konkani, always sent out to the right contact person, before 4:00 p.m. if you want them carried the next day.Make a special effort to get coverage from the non English dailies. These are what the majority of Goa reads.
To keep the issue on the boil you need a series of ‘breaks’. It is well worth holding back dynamic information and releasing it in bits so that the story stays alive. Get known faces to speak up on your behalf. Any celebrities from your area? Get them to pitch in and do their bit. All is fair when you are fighting for column space.
As your issue begins to get press coverage, start planning how to mobilize more support. First look for support near to home – associations in the nearby villages, other action committees and consumer groups. Make sure you network with other activists and Goa wide groups. You will get the benefit of both numbers and their experience.
An important weapon is a public rally.But NEVER decide to call a morcha unless you are sure of the numbers. And numbers in Goa are extremely difficult to get. If you call a public protest and end up with a couple of hundred people,that is the end of officialdom taking you seriously. If you manage to gather a couple of thousand they will sit up. And if, like a recent protest, you manage to get five thousand people on the road and shut down all of Panjim, you can be sure your demands will be met. But this will not happen unless you network with other NGO’s in the field, have a dedicated bank of volunteers drumming up support, and provide money for buses to truck people in from elsewhere. Launching a public protest can be a huge logistic exercise. Far better to innovate and come up with methods of protest that leverage minimum effort with maximum mileage. Who says you can’t get creative with protesting? The Protest by Picnic organized by GBA on Vainguinim beach was one of the most delightful ways to protestthought up in a long time. The Cidade had been treating the beach as private property for far too long. To reclaim it as public space, GBA threw a picnic and everyone was invited!
Forget the tried and tested route of flexing muscles at large rallies. Go in for something crazier- that the establishment will also have no idea how to tackle, and which will grab you lots of press.
Meanwhile the real slog will go on. Make sure you have a dedicated band that is following up onRTI applications and other government permissions.I always thought that speaking directly to those responsible for handing out permissions was a waste of time. But I was proved wrong. Visit the Chief Town Planner often enough, and with press in tow, and he will eventually have to take action of some sort. Support will come from unexpected places within the government. In one case the Forest department chose to take umbrage that a powerful builder had cut trees without their permission. They ordered an Inspection and a subsequentStop Work notice. So don’t ignore this route. Meet those on the official side. Sometimesinstead of a stuffed government shirt you will encounter a human being who is genuinely trying to do his job. It always leaves me hopeful.
By now the individual back lash will have started. You can expect notices from the panchayat, cases filed against you at the police station and stones thrown at your house at night. These are all tactics of intimidation, and it amazes me how little it takes to scare people. A couple of stones rattle against the roof and suddenly all the supporters vanish. You’re there to fight, correct? Then fight. Go and register counter cases at the police station. Hire a damn good lawyer. Take them on head on. It always neutralizes them. One activist who got a demolition notice for a perfectly legal garage merely shrugged and said‘ Okay I’ll demolish my garage even though it is legal – so now what are you going to do?’ That left them stumped. It is important to make them realise that you are not a pushover who will run at the first sign of trouble.Let them know that you are a yodha and this is going to be a real battle. Make sure you keep the press in the loop. Press coverage is good protection.
Sounding more complex than you bargained for? The most important things in life are always got at a high cost. But the cost of not fighting for them is even higher.You got started because you were angry. Keep the anger going. Keep the fight going. (continues)
Part I of this article can be found at:
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2010-January/188157.html
====================================
First published in the Herald, Goa - January 12, 2010
Showing posts with label Venita Coelho. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Venita Coelho. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
The Accidental Activist - How to start a protest – Part I
The Accidental Activist - How to start a protest – Part I
By Venita Coelho
First you have to be very angry. Indignation won’t do. Any battle worth fighting takes a long time and your anger will have to simmer through months and maybe years. It will have to sustain you when family try to talk you out of it, neighbours quit talking to you and the panchayat sends you notices for trumped up violations. Really hopping mad? Willing to put yourself on the line? Here’s some simple advice on how you can get going.
The next step is to get the facts. You want to stop that mega project in its tracks? The public protests won’t do it, though they are vital for bringing the issue into the public eye. What will do it is some small little overlooked permission, or fact that will turn up when you get all the documents under RTI. Get someone else to file for the documents under RTI. Why set up alerts before necessary? Further, filing legal objections is often a time bound activity, counting from the day you actually got the facts in your hands.
Getting the facts out of various authorities under RTI is a complicated exercise. If there is the slightest ambiguity in the wording of your request, they will promptly send you the wrong papers, deny they have them, or Xerox every paper in the building, except the one that you want, and hand you the bill. But the key to winning the battle is right here. No facts. No case.
Take your facts to the experts. Go straight to the people who are already fighting on the ground, and use legal counsel that has already proved itself as unbuyable. Remember that crores are at stake and in Goa unfortunately, almost everyone and everything is up for sale.
If you are going to fight a long hard battle, you need an army. First mobilize all those who are going to be affected by what you are protesting. Start with your village. A good way is to do a simple flyer ( in English and Konkani). Rope in some youngsters to deliver it doorstep to doorstep – always on a Sunday. Then hold corner meetings at the various vaddos, explaining the facts. Follow up the flyer with an awareness meeting.
You need a name, a working base and a face before you go public – launch an Action Committee. Never ignore the existing clubs/committees/consumer forums etc in your area. Speak personally to every single one and get their support. If you leave them out, you can be garunteed an outbreak of politics the minute the issue hits the headlines. Get a spokesperson who can speak both English and Konkani fluently. Make sure he/she knows the facts backwards. Get two convenors in case one is ever out of town, or compromised. Make sure you have at least four people who will not buckle no matter what the pressure. One of these better be a good organizer, quick with to do lists, and inexorable with follow up. Take a little internal donation so that you have some working capital.
Tackle the Panchayat. Make sure you are clear about the Panchayats role having got all the correspondence from the files. Confront them in writing. Documentation of every step is the key here. When it all ends up in court you will be grateful for every single scrap of paper that you have that traces the process. Get them to commit on paper the permissions they did or did not give. Don’t expect much. Projects worth crores, or violations that make money for people in high places, aren’t ever innocently passed by the panchayat. If you can get a couple of panchayat members on your side that is a bonanza.
At your awareness meeting you can expect your first reprisal. Along with curious villagers, there will be spies in attendance, and, possibly, rowdies paid to disrupt the event. Be ready to have a timely powercut disrupt the proceedings. Make sure you have informed the police in writing of the meeting and the loudspeaker permission is in place. Pulling the plug on you is a simple matter for the authorities if you haven’t already covered every single base.
Pull every favour to ensure that some press is present. This will protect you.
Make sure you have some heavy duty names speaking. Get respected activists who bring their moral authority to the issue that you are tackling. Go and meet each of them personally with the facts be. Don’t be afraid. They have spent years trying to save Goa. They always welcome one more fighter to the fold. Make sure the awareness meeting alerts the villagers on how the issue will affect each of them personally. Will it ruin their water supply? Change the population of the village so they are outnumbered? Dump sewage into their fields? People respond to personal threat. (continues)
====================================================
First published in the Herald, Goa - January 5, 2010
By Venita Coelho
First you have to be very angry. Indignation won’t do. Any battle worth fighting takes a long time and your anger will have to simmer through months and maybe years. It will have to sustain you when family try to talk you out of it, neighbours quit talking to you and the panchayat sends you notices for trumped up violations. Really hopping mad? Willing to put yourself on the line? Here’s some simple advice on how you can get going.
The next step is to get the facts. You want to stop that mega project in its tracks? The public protests won’t do it, though they are vital for bringing the issue into the public eye. What will do it is some small little overlooked permission, or fact that will turn up when you get all the documents under RTI. Get someone else to file for the documents under RTI. Why set up alerts before necessary? Further, filing legal objections is often a time bound activity, counting from the day you actually got the facts in your hands.
Getting the facts out of various authorities under RTI is a complicated exercise. If there is the slightest ambiguity in the wording of your request, they will promptly send you the wrong papers, deny they have them, or Xerox every paper in the building, except the one that you want, and hand you the bill. But the key to winning the battle is right here. No facts. No case.
Take your facts to the experts. Go straight to the people who are already fighting on the ground, and use legal counsel that has already proved itself as unbuyable. Remember that crores are at stake and in Goa unfortunately, almost everyone and everything is up for sale.
If you are going to fight a long hard battle, you need an army. First mobilize all those who are going to be affected by what you are protesting. Start with your village. A good way is to do a simple flyer ( in English and Konkani). Rope in some youngsters to deliver it doorstep to doorstep – always on a Sunday. Then hold corner meetings at the various vaddos, explaining the facts. Follow up the flyer with an awareness meeting.
You need a name, a working base and a face before you go public – launch an Action Committee. Never ignore the existing clubs/committees/consumer forums etc in your area. Speak personally to every single one and get their support. If you leave them out, you can be garunteed an outbreak of politics the minute the issue hits the headlines. Get a spokesperson who can speak both English and Konkani fluently. Make sure he/she knows the facts backwards. Get two convenors in case one is ever out of town, or compromised. Make sure you have at least four people who will not buckle no matter what the pressure. One of these better be a good organizer, quick with to do lists, and inexorable with follow up. Take a little internal donation so that you have some working capital.
Tackle the Panchayat. Make sure you are clear about the Panchayats role having got all the correspondence from the files. Confront them in writing. Documentation of every step is the key here. When it all ends up in court you will be grateful for every single scrap of paper that you have that traces the process. Get them to commit on paper the permissions they did or did not give. Don’t expect much. Projects worth crores, or violations that make money for people in high places, aren’t ever innocently passed by the panchayat. If you can get a couple of panchayat members on your side that is a bonanza.
At your awareness meeting you can expect your first reprisal. Along with curious villagers, there will be spies in attendance, and, possibly, rowdies paid to disrupt the event. Be ready to have a timely powercut disrupt the proceedings. Make sure you have informed the police in writing of the meeting and the loudspeaker permission is in place. Pulling the plug on you is a simple matter for the authorities if you haven’t already covered every single base.
Pull every favour to ensure that some press is present. This will protect you.
Make sure you have some heavy duty names speaking. Get respected activists who bring their moral authority to the issue that you are tackling. Go and meet each of them personally with the facts be. Don’t be afraid. They have spent years trying to save Goa. They always welcome one more fighter to the fold. Make sure the awareness meeting alerts the villagers on how the issue will affect each of them personally. Will it ruin their water supply? Change the population of the village so they are outnumbered? Dump sewage into their fields? People respond to personal threat. (continues)
====================================================
First published in the Herald, Goa - January 5, 2010
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Accidental Activist - To Die For
By Venita Coelho
What would you be willing to give your life for? That might seem like an odd question, but it has been on my mind the last few weeks. The Naxals and Maoists have been in the news as the war between them and the government has escalated. The people who the police have been arresting seem a world removed from Maoist rhetoric. Instead, they seem to be people like us.
First there was Kobad Gandhi. He was brought up in a rich Parsee family, lived on Malabar hill, and had the best of education. Still he chose to throw it all up and go fight on the other side of the fence. His wife was a professor of sociology in Nagpur University. Neither of them fall remotely near the stereotype of a naxal as the government projects it - dangerous lawless anarchists.
A year ago there excitement over the alleged naxalite with a Goan connection. Arun Fereira was arrested from Bandra and held by the police. Arun was educated at St. Xaviers college and again, a world removed from what you would imagine a naxal to be. There are more goan connections. Vernon Gonsalves is being held as a suspected leader of the CPI (ML). Arrested along with him was K D Rao - a practising lawyer and office bearer of the Indian Association of Peoples Lawyers.
More recent is the arrest of Agriculture scientist Ravi Sharma and his wife B Anuradha. Ravi Sharma was working on a PhD. His wife was employed by syndicate bank.
Of course the most celebrated is the arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen. He is a paediatrician, a public health specialist and a winner of a string of national and international awards for the outstanding work he has done bringing medical aid to the people of Chattisgarh. His arrest was declared in breach of international law by no less an authority than Amnesty international. The police chose to brand him a naxal so that they could then use special laws that allowed them to hold him with no reprieve.
One person's activist seems to be another person's naxal. Our own Seby found himself slapped with the 'naxal' brand by the authorities so that they could better deal with him. Naxal or not - these are all highly educated people who had the option to live comfortable lives. Yet they have chosen to leave the mainstream and struggle on the side of the poorest of the poor. They have faced arrest, detention and torture. Why are they willing to put their lives on the line? What are they willing to die for?
This is a question that each of us needs to answer for ourselves. For a very real reason. I have been watching for a long time now as activists struggle in Goa against the combined might of the mining lobby, the building lobby, and the corrupt state. Where we manage to blow the whistle on one small issue, a host of other things are being sneaked in from other back doors. The GBA tried it's best to get villages to respond to the Regional Plan in a manner that would protect the villager and the village in the years to come. Now comes news that building laws are being passed, loopholes are being exploited and all that we fought in the RP is coming back in other avatars.
Over the last few months I have slowly realized that we are not just examining the projections of worst case scenarios. The foundation of the worst case scenarios is being laid even as we look on. The mining industry and the building lobby are already laying the basis for a devastated Goa. It is time to ask you what you are willing to fight for. As an intelligent, educated person, what is it that you hold so dear that you would be willing to stake your life for it?
Would you fight if someone poured poison into your drinking water? Would you fight if someone choked the river that ran through your village? Would you fight if the raw sewage from a mega project leaked into your well? Would you fight if all the fields in your village were marked for destruction? Would you fight if the crop your family depended on for a whole years food was deliberately destroyed? All of this is happening in villages across Goa. It is time the fight stopped being restricted to a few 'activists'.
No one is asking you to be a naxal. But, frighteningly, if you don't stand up to fight now - it may be too late in the next few years. Your rivers will be choked, your water poisoned, your trees cut down, your fields filled in, your village reduced to concrete. Don't decide to join the fight when there is nothing left to fight for. Decide what you are willing to lay your life down for now. (ENDS)
--------------------------------------------------------------
As appeared in The Herald, Goa - October 26, 2009
By Venita Coelho
What would you be willing to give your life for? That might seem like an odd question, but it has been on my mind the last few weeks. The Naxals and Maoists have been in the news as the war between them and the government has escalated. The people who the police have been arresting seem a world removed from Maoist rhetoric. Instead, they seem to be people like us.
First there was Kobad Gandhi. He was brought up in a rich Parsee family, lived on Malabar hill, and had the best of education. Still he chose to throw it all up and go fight on the other side of the fence. His wife was a professor of sociology in Nagpur University. Neither of them fall remotely near the stereotype of a naxal as the government projects it - dangerous lawless anarchists.
A year ago there excitement over the alleged naxalite with a Goan connection. Arun Fereira was arrested from Bandra and held by the police. Arun was educated at St. Xaviers college and again, a world removed from what you would imagine a naxal to be. There are more goan connections. Vernon Gonsalves is being held as a suspected leader of the CPI (ML). Arrested along with him was K D Rao - a practising lawyer and office bearer of the Indian Association of Peoples Lawyers.
More recent is the arrest of Agriculture scientist Ravi Sharma and his wife B Anuradha. Ravi Sharma was working on a PhD. His wife was employed by syndicate bank.
Of course the most celebrated is the arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen. He is a paediatrician, a public health specialist and a winner of a string of national and international awards for the outstanding work he has done bringing medical aid to the people of Chattisgarh. His arrest was declared in breach of international law by no less an authority than Amnesty international. The police chose to brand him a naxal so that they could then use special laws that allowed them to hold him with no reprieve.
One person's activist seems to be another person's naxal. Our own Seby found himself slapped with the 'naxal' brand by the authorities so that they could better deal with him. Naxal or not - these are all highly educated people who had the option to live comfortable lives. Yet they have chosen to leave the mainstream and struggle on the side of the poorest of the poor. They have faced arrest, detention and torture. Why are they willing to put their lives on the line? What are they willing to die for?
This is a question that each of us needs to answer for ourselves. For a very real reason. I have been watching for a long time now as activists struggle in Goa against the combined might of the mining lobby, the building lobby, and the corrupt state. Where we manage to blow the whistle on one small issue, a host of other things are being sneaked in from other back doors. The GBA tried it's best to get villages to respond to the Regional Plan in a manner that would protect the villager and the village in the years to come. Now comes news that building laws are being passed, loopholes are being exploited and all that we fought in the RP is coming back in other avatars.
Over the last few months I have slowly realized that we are not just examining the projections of worst case scenarios. The foundation of the worst case scenarios is being laid even as we look on. The mining industry and the building lobby are already laying the basis for a devastated Goa. It is time to ask you what you are willing to fight for. As an intelligent, educated person, what is it that you hold so dear that you would be willing to stake your life for it?
Would you fight if someone poured poison into your drinking water? Would you fight if someone choked the river that ran through your village? Would you fight if the raw sewage from a mega project leaked into your well? Would you fight if all the fields in your village were marked for destruction? Would you fight if the crop your family depended on for a whole years food was deliberately destroyed? All of this is happening in villages across Goa. It is time the fight stopped being restricted to a few 'activists'.
No one is asking you to be a naxal. But, frighteningly, if you don't stand up to fight now - it may be too late in the next few years. Your rivers will be choked, your water poisoned, your trees cut down, your fields filled in, your village reduced to concrete. Don't decide to join the fight when there is nothing left to fight for. Decide what you are willing to lay your life down for now. (ENDS)
--------------------------------------------------------------
As appeared in The Herald, Goa - October 26, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Accidental Activist - Water water everywhere!
By Venita Coelho
The Monsoon is finally over. It went out in spectacular style. I stood in the fields as thunder resounded and lightning fell with hair raising crackles. The rain was cold and wet, and I revelled in it, knowing that it was the last of our monsoon outbursts. Standing in that downpour, it was impossible to imagine that Goa could have a water problem. But indeed we do.
There are areas in Moira that get water for just one hour a day. The PWD supply has always been erratic. Everyone relies on their wells. But there's two kinds of bad news. First - the water table has been dropping steadily. As more and more constructions come up in the area, the builders pull up huge amounts through bore wells. The question is - who does the water belong to? Surely a community has first right over the water, and not commercial interests who don't care a damn if they cause long term damage as long as they make their buck. If a community has rights over its water, then it has the right to deny commercial usage of that water.
The Panchayat in Moira has wisely decided there will be no bore wells - but the water supply department hands out permissions for bore wells without bothering to check with the village. Builders and Panchayats find themselves in a stalemate. While builders assure the Panchayat that they will not touch the well, they secretly lower in pumps and help themselves to the water. And so a community resource dwindles until the community itself suffers.
The second really bad news - is that the wells in the ward of Povacao are polluted. In Goan villages we tend to have common ground water tables. That means all of our wells in Moira tap into the same water. If one well pollutes the water - not a single person can use that water any more. We've already seen that happen in Calangute and in Panjim and across Goa the same disaster is slowly unfolding. In this case this was a problem that had been forseen. Concerned citizens had repeatedly warned the Panchayat that the building project coming up in Povacao had sewage too close to the well. Neither did it have adequate sewage disposal for the number of people who would be residents. For the last three years, several residents have fought a frustrating battle trying to get officialdom to take them seriously. And now comes confirmation from well tests that the wells have indeed been polluted. The Health department has warned all those in the ward not to rely on the wells for drinking water.
Sadly, the culprits are not just builders putting together shoddy sewage infrastructure, it is the villagers as well. Sewage tanks are dug overnight, anywhere at all. A sewage chamber is built just mere feet from a public well. When neighbours protest, the culprits brother-in-law, who is a panch member, assures the Panchayat that the offending toilet will never be used. Of course it immediately is, with disastrous consequences. It is the petty cheating - the adding of a bathroom, the skimping on the size of a sewage chamber, that cost us so heavily in the long run. Yes, that new sewage chamber that you are having dug without bothering to check the distance from your well will one day lead to serious illness for your family. Worse still - you could actually be responsible for poisoning the water of your entire village.
The trouble with water is that they aren't making more if it. It is a finite resource. Moreover, we don't have access to all of it. 97.5% of it is saltwater. Of the fresh water resources, almost 70% are locked in glaciers. We have access mainly to the groundwater. And if that is polluted we are left with only the PWD water. And as Goa's water woes grow - that unreliable source is quite likely to dry up completely. No less than ten lakh children die a year because of bad quality and polluted water. 80% of all illnesses are due to bad water. That problem now sits on our doorstep in Moira. With one ward already polluted it will not be long before wells across Moira are unusable. As PWD water gets more unreliable, as water tables drop, as the only accessible water becomes polluted - we are heading for disaster.
It is the same old culprits every single time. Commercial interests that come into a village and proceed to build without any regard for village resources. Panchayats who don't take the problem seriously until it is too late, or, as in most cases, take their happy money to keep quiet. And villagers who don't think for the village but only for themselves.
The village community is an organic whole. We breathe the same air and we drink the same water. Clean air and water is our first right. No one person or commercial enterprise has the right to ruin our water and put all of us at risk. Unless individuals and Panchayats sit up to protect that right, we will be in bad shape in a few years, with water water everywhere - but not a drop to drink! (ENDS)
--------------------------------------------------------------
As appeared in The Herald, Goa - September 29, 2009
By Venita Coelho
The Monsoon is finally over. It went out in spectacular style. I stood in the fields as thunder resounded and lightning fell with hair raising crackles. The rain was cold and wet, and I revelled in it, knowing that it was the last of our monsoon outbursts. Standing in that downpour, it was impossible to imagine that Goa could have a water problem. But indeed we do.
There are areas in Moira that get water for just one hour a day. The PWD supply has always been erratic. Everyone relies on their wells. But there's two kinds of bad news. First - the water table has been dropping steadily. As more and more constructions come up in the area, the builders pull up huge amounts through bore wells. The question is - who does the water belong to? Surely a community has first right over the water, and not commercial interests who don't care a damn if they cause long term damage as long as they make their buck. If a community has rights over its water, then it has the right to deny commercial usage of that water.
The Panchayat in Moira has wisely decided there will be no bore wells - but the water supply department hands out permissions for bore wells without bothering to check with the village. Builders and Panchayats find themselves in a stalemate. While builders assure the Panchayat that they will not touch the well, they secretly lower in pumps and help themselves to the water. And so a community resource dwindles until the community itself suffers.
The second really bad news - is that the wells in the ward of Povacao are polluted. In Goan villages we tend to have common ground water tables. That means all of our wells in Moira tap into the same water. If one well pollutes the water - not a single person can use that water any more. We've already seen that happen in Calangute and in Panjim and across Goa the same disaster is slowly unfolding. In this case this was a problem that had been forseen. Concerned citizens had repeatedly warned the Panchayat that the building project coming up in Povacao had sewage too close to the well. Neither did it have adequate sewage disposal for the number of people who would be residents. For the last three years, several residents have fought a frustrating battle trying to get officialdom to take them seriously. And now comes confirmation from well tests that the wells have indeed been polluted. The Health department has warned all those in the ward not to rely on the wells for drinking water.
Sadly, the culprits are not just builders putting together shoddy sewage infrastructure, it is the villagers as well. Sewage tanks are dug overnight, anywhere at all. A sewage chamber is built just mere feet from a public well. When neighbours protest, the culprits brother-in-law, who is a panch member, assures the Panchayat that the offending toilet will never be used. Of course it immediately is, with disastrous consequences. It is the petty cheating - the adding of a bathroom, the skimping on the size of a sewage chamber, that cost us so heavily in the long run. Yes, that new sewage chamber that you are having dug without bothering to check the distance from your well will one day lead to serious illness for your family. Worse still - you could actually be responsible for poisoning the water of your entire village.
The trouble with water is that they aren't making more if it. It is a finite resource. Moreover, we don't have access to all of it. 97.5% of it is saltwater. Of the fresh water resources, almost 70% are locked in glaciers. We have access mainly to the groundwater. And if that is polluted we are left with only the PWD water. And as Goa's water woes grow - that unreliable source is quite likely to dry up completely. No less than ten lakh children die a year because of bad quality and polluted water. 80% of all illnesses are due to bad water. That problem now sits on our doorstep in Moira. With one ward already polluted it will not be long before wells across Moira are unusable. As PWD water gets more unreliable, as water tables drop, as the only accessible water becomes polluted - we are heading for disaster.
It is the same old culprits every single time. Commercial interests that come into a village and proceed to build without any regard for village resources. Panchayats who don't take the problem seriously until it is too late, or, as in most cases, take their happy money to keep quiet. And villagers who don't think for the village but only for themselves.
The village community is an organic whole. We breathe the same air and we drink the same water. Clean air and water is our first right. No one person or commercial enterprise has the right to ruin our water and put all of us at risk. Unless individuals and Panchayats sit up to protect that right, we will be in bad shape in a few years, with water water everywhere - but not a drop to drink! (ENDS)
--------------------------------------------------------------
As appeared in The Herald, Goa - September 29, 2009
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