Farmers from Oxel-Siolim have been left helpless as the age old riverside mud bundh had breached on Wednesday damaging their standing crops

Farmers from Oxel-Siolim have been left helpless as the age old riverside mud bundh had breached on Wednesday damaging their standing crops and also uprooting coconut trees with the heavy flow of water.
The bundh, located around 500 meters from Shri Xetrapal Temple Oxel was weak and had developed cracks as a result of it gave way and saline water from the Chapora river entered into the fields here, informed locals.
Gauresh Mandrekar a local youth said, “ The bundh had breached on Wednesday night during high tide and saline water began to gush into the fields. People have grown beans (halsane) and vegetables here which will be destroyed.”
Locals informed that for the last two years, they have been requesting the panchayat to construct a protection wall and the issue was also raised during the gram sabha as well as in VDC meeting but lamented the fact the civic body failed to take up the work as a result of which farmers have to suffer today.
When contacted the sarpanch of Oxel Pravin Kochrekar in this regard, Kochrekar said that efforts will be made to re-build the washed away bundh as soon as possible with the co-operation of Siolim MLA Delilah Lobo.