poinguinim increased flow of water and rise in salinity levels in galgibaga rivers upstream stretches due to a breach in a sandbar on the sea front has hit agricultural activities with saline waters rendering fields uncultivable in poinguinimcyclone tauktae broke the sandbar on galgibaga beach in midmay opening a direct access between the river and the arabian sea this led to a greater flow of the sea water into the river and submerged fields along a 3km stretch of its banks from vani bandh to bhata bandh in poinguinimthe fields have now turned into barren lands we farmers especially from koleabandh who are mainly velips had toiled so hard for years but now this natural calamity has deprived us of our food farmer ram velip saidmore than 30 farmers from koleabandh are hoping the authorities will step in to restore their agricultural landthe farmers at koleabandh mahalwada sustained their livelihood by repairing the breaches to bundhs however the situation has gone out of their control due to the massive inflow of saline water into the fieldsanother farmer janardhan velip said that during recent years they have faced a lot of problems due to natural calamities such as cyclones even our drinking water wells have been contaminated thereby forcing us to walk longer distances for water he saidstretches of canacona areas along the river banks had been surveyed by the water resources department as part of a world bank project to repair bundhs by constructing gabion structures the department should pursue this project as it not only protects the interests of 30 to 40 farmers but also residents along a 3km stretch local sunil painginkar saidzonal agriculture officer kirtiraj naik gaonkar said that he had surveyed the damage it is not just fields coconut plantations have also been affected he saidin the future the yield of coconuts could also decrease gradually arecanut plantations and pepper creepers may also die due to extra salinity the drinking water wells will also be affected considerablyhowever farmers could grow salttolerant crops such as goa dhan 1234 he saidrecently a team led by canacona deputy collector nilesh daimodkar canacona mamlatdar vimod dalal zonal agriculture officer kirtiraj naik gaonkar wrd canacona officials inspected the internal bundhs at mahalwadafrom may this year about 800m of shoreline has been subjected to largescale erosion besides the sand bars destruction senior geographer and environmentalist f m nadaf saidhundreds of casuarina trees and ipomea vegetation had protected the 17km long galgibaga beach but the heavy erosion is uprooting the treesaccording to unconfirmed reports salinity has increased in the galgibaga river this might affect the mangrove vegetation negatively and a further rise in salinity may affect khazan lands nadaf saidsimilarly due to storm surge spring tide and cyclonic disturbance there is a possibility of rise in river level which may affect the settlements along the river banks