Cabinet clears new drinking water dept, sewerage to quit PWD remit

Panaji: The state cabinet on Wednesday approved the formation of a separate, new department of drinking water or DDW, carved out from the public works department (PWD). Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that the PWD will look only after roads and buildings henceforth and that the next move would be to separate all sewerage-related works too from the PWD.

He said all sewerage-related works will now be looked after by Sewerage and Infrastructural Development Corporation of Goa Ltd (SIDCGL).

“The department of drinking water has been completely separated from the PWD. All works related to the provision of drinking water will be looked after by this department,” Sawant said. “The new department will be fully independent and looked after by its own chief engineer. The PWD will henceforth only look after roads and buildings.”

He said that until now, SIDCGL was laying the lines and constructing sewage treatment plants, and these were later being looked after by the PWD.

“This will not happen in the future. Next, we will separate all works related to sewerage,” the CM said. “All sewerage works will be looked after by the sewerage corporation, which is fully independent and comes under the finance department.”

The CM said that the drinking water supply was not getting the 100% focus it requires, under the PWD. “With an independent department, they will now be able to plan for the next 25 years, depending on the raw water supply the water resources department is providing and plan how to smoothly supply it to the consumer,” Sawant said. “It will ensure better coordination between the DDW and the WRD.”

From the upcoming budget, a separate allocation will be made for the new department, he said.

“We will give an offer to all engineers of the PWD to join the DDW. They can opt to join the department at the same level at which they are serving in the PWD at present,” Sawant said. “If one is serving as an executive engineer in the PWD, he or she will join as an executive engineer in the DDW.”


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