Goa will rope in the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) to study the carrying capacity of its popular beaches in a bid to control pollution and proliferation of beach shacks.
“There may be too many shacks on the beaches. The carrying capacity of the beaches itself should be studied. The board had decided to ask NIO to study the carrying capacity of the beaches to understand how many shacks could be ideally put on a particular stretch of beach,” Goa State Pollution Control Board chairman Jose Noronha told reporters on Thursday.
Goa-based NIO is a central government agency that functions under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
Several hundreds of beach shacks cater to the over three million tourists who arrive in Goa annually. The shacks are licenced every tourist season and have to be dismantled at the beginning of the monsoon.
Noronha said the study would look at issues related to sewage management and solid waste management in beach shacks. “We have received a lot of complaints regarding toilet facilities in shacks. We are looking if we can have a common toilet facility on a paid basis, which can be shared by 10-15 shacks.”
Noronha said a study involving the carrying capacity of Goa’s rivers would also soon be undertaken in view of the increasing marine traffic as well as river-oriented tourism and infrastructure projects.
“We have asked the environment department of Goa to study the carrying capacity of our rivers,” he said.
He said the decision was taken in view of the large number of projects proposed in Goa like house boats, jetties, marinas, pontoons, berthing points for trawlers and boats.
The baseline study, Noronha said, would help determine “how much (infrastructure) we can allow on which stretch” and would help measure water quality and examine the water bodies for contaminants.
