Govt has job in hand with vanishing beaches, tourist onrush

In the last two years, the eroding coastline, lack of infrastructure to support the ever-swelling crowd of tourists and migration have emerged as major concerns for Goa.

In the last two years, the eroding coastline, lack of infrastructure to support the ever-swelling crowd of tourists and migration have emerged as major concerns for Goa. The beach belt, home to luxury hotels and houses of the mega rich, is facing an onslaught of the heavy torrential sea waves, bringing fears of disappearing beaches.

In what could be seen as an effect of global warming, the rainy season also seems to have diluted the High Tide Line (HTL) that decides the areas where construction activity is permitted under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) regulations. The HTL is an imaginary line conceptualised by the Coastal Zone Management Authority (CZMA) of the Goa Govt and the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO).

The Goa Bench of Bombay High Court directed the CZMA and the NIO to once again decide the HTL for the Goan coastline after environmentalists and NGOs petitioned it against violations of the CRZ.

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The Government, represented by the CZMA and the NIO, has kept the deadline and the decision of the High Court allowing developmental activity is still awaited.

The state Government was also forced to scrap the notified Regional Plan following public objections over change of use of agricultural lands and ecologically sensitive areas into settlement areas in the plan. In addition to some graft charges against those behind the plan, huge investments by hoteliers and developers are also facing an uncertain future. The Government is yet to give any assurance to the investors regarding a new Regional Plan.

The Town and Country Planning Department is in the process of framing new regulations, expected to restrict housing in village areas to two floors above ground floor. Although environmentalists and conservationists would rejoice over such a move, but the lack of infrastructure to support the growing influx of tourists and migrant population would remain a question.

Moreover, the Assembly, which is in session, has expressed concern over the increasing migrant population in the background of collapse of basic amenities in certain parts where malaria has become a threat. It is the migrant labour, employed by the builders and who escape the scrutiny of the Health Department, are often the carriers of Plasmodium vivax, the agent of the deadly Falciparum malaria.

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The biggest challenge for the Government probably is to discipline the erring builders when some of the MLAs and ministers are from the profession.