While the authorities maintain that sanitation and hygiene at Cutbona Jetty have improved since cases of cholera were first reported here over a month ago, thousands of labourers still await the installation of proper toilets. The Fisheries Department is still in the process of planning and coordinating the project, which was planned as a 50-toilet complex.
This delay has raised concerns among fishermen and other users of the jetty, who are currently forced to use the row of mobile toilets and urinals paid for and maintained by the Cutbona Boat Owners Federation.
“We have been asking for proper toilets at the jetty for years now. How long will we be expected to pay for these mobile toilets, which cost around Rs 10 lakh a month to maintain? This expense eats into our profits,” said a boat owner at the jetty.
The office of the District Collector informed O Heraldo that the long-delayed toilet facility at Cutbona jetty is under the oversight of the Fisheries Department.
Minister for Environment Aleixo Sequeira announced that the department has “initiated” the process of providing toilet facilities at the jetty.
On Monday, the Minister, along with South Goa district authorities, visited the jetty to review the ongoing work. Sequeira noted that all abandoned vessels have been removed from the jetty, with only two remaining.
“The streetlights have also been repaired, and the old jetty has received a fresh coat of asphalt,” he added.
He mentioned that work on laying a new water supply line from the PWD will be completed very soon, although water is currently being supplied by tanker trucks. Speaking to O Heraldo, Additional Collector Srinet Kothwale assured that the situation at the jetty is under control and no new cholera cases have been reported.
“The process pertaining to the toilet facility has been started by the Fisheries Department,” he confirmed. Kothwale expressed confidence that their efforts will enhance hygiene and safety at the jetty.
Since the first week of September, at least 210 fishing boat workers from the jetties at Cutbona, Mobor and Cavelossim, mostly migrant labourers from Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, have taken ill with diarrhoea and cholera. Several cases of dengue were reported as well. At least five workers died.