A PARCHED PARADISE! By Raaisa Lemos Vaz

Why Goan soil is running dry…

GOA, once a land teeming with lush pastures and overflowing with sapphire waters, be it the sacred springs or the deep village wells, was known for its abundant downpours. However, today, Goa is facing a new and unwelcome reality – the drying up of its land and nobody even sees it or asks why!
An oddity seen in Goa in recent year is that Goa is receiving nearly 3,000 mm of rainfall every year but as soon the month February is here, wells start to turn dry and the evergreen trees turn into “never” green trees. Goa is being hollowed out by the cutting of hills above and facing these drill wars below, with no respite in sight.
This state of affairs is not longer something we may attend to leisurely, all the generously permitted construction activity is literally mortgaging Goa’s survival on a long term future basis.
The crisis finds its origin in the cutting of Goan hills which are covered with laterite soil. Laterite is extremely porous and is responsible for the filtering of water from above, deep into the layers of our soil. We are stripping ourselves from the sieve of our survival.

IS THIS DEVELOPMENT?
BEHIND the masquerading of “development” and “settlement” — hills from the Kadamba Plateau to Assagao are being cut down non-existent. Where are they? The familiar hills which our ancestors loved? They are disappearing one by one. Was there ever a lush and green hill alive with water here once upon a time? How will you tell your grandchildren how generously endowed Goa once was in the not too distant past? This is also with reference to Section 39A of the Town & Planning Act which in the last few years has been merrily permitting the change of land zoning — turning once lush green zones into “settlement zones.”
The trees? Cut. The soil? Covered with concrete. The water retained? NOT ENOUGH. 90% of the rainwater becomes run-off causing flash floods which are now considered an anthropogenic disaster. By destroying our hills, we have destroyed the very veins that transport water into our water bodies, our waterway drainage systems.
If there is not enough water left draining the soil what will happen in the very near future? Try to imagine the nightmare! Goa has now also entered a “vertical salt march,” — the sound of drilling deep into the land has now become a constant background music following us around in our daily lives.
This crisis is mainly unfolding due to high-end commercial establishments in tourist hubs. They are piercing the ground to depths of 100 meters or more and tapping into ancient aquifers or “fossil water.” Such water sources do not replenish with just one monsoon season. The Bombay High Court has also issued a notice to the Department of Drinking Water with regards to a public interest litigation over unauthorized bore wells. When the pressure of this freshwater drops, in comes the Arabian sea with high salinity. Once salt enters an aquifer, the water becomes undrinkable, the fields turn into salt pans and an ecological death penalty hangs over our heads. Local gram sabhas, like in Mandur this month, have been perplexed by the fear of this salt ingress.

WHAT SMART CITY?
HEADING steadfast into the “Smart City” campaign, cities like Panaji and Porvorim are completely covered with concrete or bitumen. They are now entirely dependent on pipelines from dams like Salaulim dam. If these pipes fail, which they often do, there will be no plan B resulting in flash floods, preventing our earth from absorbing its own water. There is nothing smart about a city that cannot ensure its own survival, choosing concrete over the water resources that sustain our body fabric.
Experts from groups like the Goa Foundation and other environmental research groups argue that the damage is still reversible – but only if the state moves towards implementing what is described as a “sponge state” model. This includes:
• Restoring Goa’s ancient system of community ponds (tollem) to acts as decentralized recharge points
• Replacing standard concrete with porous materials in urban areas to allow rainwater to enter the ground
• Every village must know its “Water Budget” before a single new bore well is drilled.
As citizens of Goa, we have lived for far too long under the illusion that Goa’s water is unlimited. It is not. It a fragile gift that we have completely misused. The hills we cut and the deep holes we drill are not signs of progress, they are signs of a state that has lost its way. The protests of February 2026 are not just about land, they are also about the right to water. Who needs it first? If we continue to treat our hills as mere real estate and our aquifers as an unlimited bank account, our paradise of Goa once upon a time will soon be a parched memory.
The question for every Goan is simple: What is worth more — a luxury villa on a hill, or a glass of sweet clean thirst-quenching water from a village well? If we don’t choose the latter now, we won’t have the luxury of a choice left anymore.

(The writer of this article Raaisa Lemos Vaz is doing her BSc in Zoology)