Although the tourism department had proposed to build toilets-changing rooms at Candolim, and the foundation stone had been laid in June 2014 by then chief minister Manohar Parrikar, there are still no toilets or changing rooms on the Candolim beach which is visited by numerous tourists every day. In the absence of the same, women tourists are inconvenienced the most, while male tourists simply relieve themselves in the open, even defecating in the sand dunes, leading to an unhygienic situation. Read the complete report here.
[su_expand more_text=”READ MORE” less_text=” ” height=”0″ hide_less=”yes” link_style=”button” link_align=”center”]While the tourism department keeps announcing fancy projects like cable cars and seaplanes, the Candolim beach still lacks basic facilities like changing rooms and toilets.
According to the sources, tourism stakeholders at Candolim, like water sports operators said, lack of public toilets and changing rooms at the beach is affecting business as tourists prefer going to Calangute instead where there are a number of public toilets and changing rooms. Adding to that they also said that it was for this reason that tour buses visited Calangute even during the monsoon, choosing to avoid the Candolim beach.
As a result tourism stakeholders in Calangute conduct roaring business all year round, while those on the Candolim beach are almost wholly reliant on charter tourists and domestic tourists staying in the nearby resorts there.
When contacted, the tourism department said proposal to build changing rooms and toilets at Candolim and Aguada have been approved by the state and Central governments. The Centre had been approached for funds under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme. “The funds have been sanctioned and works are at the tendering stage,” director of tourism Sanjeev Dessai said, and added, “The plan is to complete these projects before the peak season.”
In the last few years two new public toilets and changing rooms have been built in Calangute in addition to the existing two. The Calangute panchayat has also provided mobile toilets in fields near the St Alex Church where big buses are asked to park, locals said and pointed out that there is not a single public toilet in Candolim.
[/su_expand]
