September 2004

By Frederick Noronha

For the two million visitors who land on her shores each year, Goa, India is just a good holiday. But the impact of mass tourism is strongly being felt on the shores of North Goa, where tourism first took root in the 1960s with disaffected Western youth fleeing the materialism of their societies.

North Goa’s most scenic spot is being squeezed of its water resources, choked by sewage, swamped by population pressures, and seeing its skyline and vegetation undergoing a drastic change, says a series of recently published studies on the subject. Unless something is done fast, the price to be paid could be serious.

North Goa district is a major tourist destination and a ‘hub of a variety of tourism-related activities’, state a team of scientists from the Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography, in one of the papers presented in a new book entitled Coastal Tourism, Environment, and Sustainable Local Development published by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI, formerly Tata Energy Research Institute).

They point out that over half a million tourists visit the beaches and other coastal places of this district each year. Currently, tourism officials estimate a total of two million tourists visit Goa each year, of which nearly a quarter-million are foreigners.

Goa’s tourism belt is getting overcrowded, these studies point out too. Candolim, a former fishing village now turned tourist destination, immediately south of the overbuilt and once world-famous Calangute beach, has a density of 1,021 persons per kilometre, compared to Bardez taluka’s 624 persons.

Male immigration into the tourism areas of Goa has reversed the earlier favourable-to-women sex ratio here. Calangute, notes another essay here, was the first village to be ‘visited by tourism’ – which came in the shape of hippies in the 1960s. It went on to soon gain international recognition.

But all this is not without its problems.

Tourism is highly seasonal in Goa. Since it is concentrated in the non-monsoon months of October-March, this causes some problems of its own. One of the fallouts is that Goa has to ‘scale up’ its infrastructure to be able to meet the demands that arise in the peak season. So, facilities are under-utilised in the off-season, and the tourist population outnumbers the local host population in season. This places additional stress on coastal resources.

As much as 57% of households in Assagao and 50% in Arpora and Parra – all villages around coastal areas of North Goa, which have stakes in tourism – were found to be not cultivating their agricultural land.

Estimates also show that some 65% of rent-backs are owned by non-resident Goans, 20-25% by Goans from India’s metropolises, and 10-15% by natives residing in Goa itself.

Says this study: ‘Qualitative research indicates a feeling among local people (despite their involvement) that the gains from tourism are not substantial. There is a growing feeling that large hotels and external groups are cornering the economic benefits, while the local population has to bear the social and environmental burden.’

‘There have been instances of locals fighting to prevent major hotel projects, such as the proposed Japanese village at Morjim, and also extension programmes of hotels. Locals view migrant groups with a feeling of distrust, as they feel that the lack of stake in land within the tourist village allows these groups to have short-term interests in tourism…,’ it adds.

In the Baga-Nerul watershed, covering villages again in the North Goa coast, it was found that sewage was hardly being treated. In 99% of low-budget, 100% of middle-budget, 89% of high-budget, and 33% of luxury hotels, sewage was being disposed of in soak-pits or tanks. Only 11% of high-budget and 67% of luxury hotels were able to treat their sewage, as they had treatment plants.

Says the study: ‘Since Goa depends on (the neighbouring states of) Karnataka and Maharashtra for its food products, it is evident that there is a high leakage of the potential income that could have been generated, were local sources to supply food to the tourism industry.’

In terms of water requirement, low-budget hotels needed 573 litres per room per day. Luxury hotels, in contrast, needed 1,335 litres per room per day, as they have huge landscaped areas, swimming pools, two or three restaurants, and other facilities.

Say researchers T G Japtap, K Desai and R Rodrigues: ‘The beaches of Goa were reported to be very clean with dense vegetation and magnificent dunes three decades ago. Over-exploitation of the beaches for tourism-related activities has severely degraded the sand dune habitats.’

Warns another study from this TERI collection: ‘It is estimated that the groundwater in coastal Bardez (taluka) is stressed due to tourism-related activities. Groundwater quality has deteriorated due to indiscriminate disposal of human-generated waste, including disposal from septic tanks and cesspools. The bacterial and nitrate concentrations are quite abnormal in almost all the coastal stretches of Bardez taluka.’

N Lourenco and R Jorge of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal say tourism causes these problems worldwide:

* Land is abandoned for speculation, as rural land prices rise.
* Traditional systems of cultivation are converted.
* Agriculture becomes a part-time activity by active workers who have shifted to the
service sector.

For Goa, where this has already happened, this rings a bell. – Third World Network Features

About the writer: Frederick Noronha is a freelance journalist based in Goa.

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