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When the wells run dry in Goa, India

The End Of The Season

Steve_t
2005-01-22 07:49:18

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Once the season is finished they are dismantled and carted off, then brought back in October for the next batch of westerners. Most of the waiters have been sent home. Those that are left hover, or sit on the wall. They'll wait, patiently, all day, as only Indians can. When potential customers pass they'll stand and say hello or good morning, hoping to turn potential to actual, perhaps with the added possibility of a tip.

The post-tourist building frenzy has begun. On cliffside they are building another thirty-two double rooms. Behind me in the village, piles of red laterite blocks, the local building material, are a symbol of the desire to attract some of next season's tourist income.

The authorities have finally finished the bridge across the Chapora river, to replace the slow, crowded ferry. They are also upgrading the road from Mapusa. The locals are convinced that the tour operators will include Arambol in their itineraries next year. Package tourists will spend more money than us frugal, long-stay travellers. Package tourists will sit in the restaurants in big groups, eating, drinking, tipping generously. They'll explore the twenty or thirty identical shops in the village, buying cotton clothing, jewellery, postcards. They'll want to take souvenirs home, and won't haggle very hard. Maybe they'll even stay in Arambol. Which explains why so many new rooms are being built.

Piles of rubbish and discarded plastic drinking water bottles are a symbol of the problems the tourists (and the west) have created. Years ago, the Indians put their rubbish in piles. The cows ate it. What the cows wouldn't eat was burned. Then the Indians embraced plastic. They still put their rubbish in piles. Cows don't eat plastic. It blows along the beach and through the village. And the westerners can't drink the local water - unless they have a pressing desire to lose weight very, very quickly.

Many of the wells in the village are dry. Several others merely have a thin layer of slimy water at the bottom. The villagers are praying for rain. That's not a metaphor for their concern. They're really praying for rain. To their individual, family and communal deities. Daily. Or more often.

We tourists are partly to blame for the lack of water. We take long showers, at least twice a day. We forget to turn off taps. We do our washing in our rooms rather than send it out to the dhobi wallahs who will thrash it against the rocks, breaking buttons, ripping teeth from zips, shredding and weakening the cloth.

This is a relatively prosperous fishing village and tourist destination, but it doesn't have mains water. This time last year there was still plenty of water. But Goa is regarded as a safe, sanitized destination - in spite of the drop in numbers of tourists worldwide it has been a good season, and they're going to keep coming.

I wonder how much earlier the wells will go dry next year?