Disaster management in Goa is better

The pipeline carrying naphta from the Marmagoa harbour to Zuari Industries in Zuarinagar sprung a leakage reportedly when the work of digging by earth moving machinery for the expansion of highways was underway. Some locals allege that it occurred when miscreants tried to drill a hole into the pipeline mistaking it for the petroleum pipeline leading to Zuari Indian Oil Tanking premises.

The result was that large quantity of naphta flowed into the stream leading into a lake at Mangor in Vasco, and it caught fire accidentally. The inferno caused huge damage to the vegetation as well as a number of houses. Five persons were seriously injured because of the fire.

The naphta flowed into wells which were used by the locals polluting the water. On the positive side, the fire tenders of the State as well as the Indian Navy responded immediately and brought the fire under control and averted what could have been a much larger catastrophe.

Though local newspapers tried to point fingers and find fault with the Disaster Management Group of the government, the overall management at the site was to be appreciated. The affected people were immediately evacuated from the site and provided with prompt assistance both the government agencies as well as by the Zuari Industries group.

Around two hundred houses around the site of disaster were affected and these have reportedly been evacuated and have been provided food and shelter by locals as well as by the industry sources. This prompt action both by the government and industry needs to be appreciated.

The chemical found in the water of two wells on the hills western slopes have been extracted and the extracted water with the chemical has been taken to the Zuari Indian Oil Tanking premises. The other wells in the locality have not been contaminated.

The work by the agencies including the Disaster Management Cell of the government needs to be appreciated because similar disaster around the world has had much more fatalities and cause much more destruction. In this fire, there were two domestic gas cylinder explosions, but there were no casualties when it had spread to the houses.

We need to accept the fact that such accidents are pure accidents. The police had in the past caught offenders who had tapped into the petrol pipeline of Zuari Indian Oil Tanking and it is obvious that in the present case some miscreants had tried to attempt the same.