Tar On Goan Beaches Has Become Seasonal

Tar On Goan Beaches Has Become Seasonal


In Goa a lot of things are seasonal, Goan weddings too are mostly preferred during the holidays, Diwali, Christmas or the summer Holiday. So also harvesting, and the conventional fruits too have their seasons, so do dogs, apart from all these, during the end of the summer, April, May we have another season for tar balls to make way to the shores, I have been a witness to this absurd phenomena for a couple of decades and as time goes by the amount of this unhealthy and unwarranted residue just keeps on increasing.

The whole year round we have visitors from all over the world visiting Goan beaches and our coastline, although our beaches are far from being what they use to be, they are still accessible, but come April, May we are stuck with tar deposits all along our coast, in our village because of the smallness of the seafront it's appalling to see four to six inches of tar all along our beach front making a mess of our beach, the only option we have is to set fire to it late in the evenings, otherwise we have to wait for the heavy monsoons to come and wash it away.

During this particular season every year this aberration makes it's presence felt, affecting sea life, birds and us humans as well. Most of us in the village like to have a dip in the sea before we proceed to the spring which is just a few steps away from the sea, but during this particular time, if you venture into the sea, you could have a tan that the Africans could envy, and the tar even reaches the spring, making it unusable.

Though our authorities have been notified about the tar deluge no action has come forth. What can be the source of this highly pollutant chemical compound?

From were does this tar come? Can it be the ships, barges, oil tanks or even the Zuari Agro-chemical factory? This particular phenomena occurs year after year without fail. So there must be some one or some people, who do some process which results into the pollution of our beaches and our environment. Our Authorities have to find this source and stop this deadly deluge.

Although year after year this particular problem is highlighted by the media, our authorities have not taken any action nor have they come up with any action plan to stop this aberration. Countries like Japan, Singapore and the USA have placed stringent law against defaulters polluting their water, and even a stain or a blob in the sea by the vessel, will immediately invite repercussions that will give the defaulting companies or the owners, sleepless nights and burn a huge hole in their finances as well.

Why can't we have these stringent laws in place to protect our beaches and our environment ? If one visits the Cutbona jetty in south Goa, it's appalling to see oil and diesel spilled all over the floor as well as the water and nobody cares, over the years, the shell fish, cockles, mussels, snails and oysters have all but disappeared from this area, even the crabs smell of oil. When will our authorities wise up or will they ever?


Freddy Agnelo Fernandes
Dubai - UAE

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Link article:
PANAJI: Sea water bringing along blobs of viscous material and depositing these on the beaches of Ashvem in the north and Benaulim in the south is turning tourists away. As summer draws to a close, the sea churns out all the dirt and the grime in the form of tar balls that wash up on the shore.

At Ashvem beach, while some tourists and locals alike on Friday seemed unfazed by the floating grime, others preferred not to venture into the reddish brown water. "The water leaves a sticky film on the body," said a middle-aged tourist.

Though this is an annual feature, the government hasn’t ever made special plans to clean the beaches of these tar balls. Director of tourism Elvis Gomes said the maintenance of hygiene on Goa’s beaches has been tendered. "The contractors have to monitor cleanliness and hygiene on beaches," he said. But the contractors do not seem alive to the problem though these contracts extend up to the end of May.

Tar balls are formed by the sea whipping up the oil heavy polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons lying at the bottom of the sea formed by the oil discharged by ships when at port. "When the sea starts churning, they cohese from liquid fractions into solids," Dr Joe D’Souza, a microbiologist said. He added, "sometimes, if the density is less, they float on the surface like foam."

A study conducted some years back by Dr D’Souza had collected two separate samples of tar balls from the beaches of Goa and sent for analysis to PetroLab GMBH, in Speyer, Germany. Using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry the analysis of the tar balls revealed the presence of 16 polyaromatic hydrocarbons of which benzo(a)pyrene and naphthalene are known to be highly carcinogenic.
(Times of India)

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