~ Shift from shared landscapes to enclosed development impacting water, access and infrastructure
~ Study links rapid construction to pressure on commons and village carrying capacity
Goa Khabar:Changes in Goa’s villages are increasingly visible in the built environment, with expanding construction and enclosed developments beginning to affect access to common spaces, resource use and infrastructure, according to architect Evanthika Pereira, an acclaimed architect and an advisor to National Association of Students of Architecture.
Speaking at a MOG Sunday session at the Museum of Goa, in Pilerne, Pereira presented findings from her research of Socorro village, tracing changes from the late 1990s to 2025. She said recent years, particularly the post-COVID period, have seen an acceleration in visible transformation.
“During this period, the most visible change has been in the built surroundings. Architecture is a tangible outcome of broader processes, and as one drives through any village, the ongoing construction is clearly visible. This is a phenomenon that has increased over the past five to seven years, particularly in the post-COVID period,” she said.
Pereira noted that construction is often equated with development, but said this understanding is limited. “This is something that is quite misconceived in India: construction is often directly correlated with development, whereas there are many other paradigms of development, from education to human resources to ecology,” she said.
A key shift, she said, is in how village spaces are being structured. Traditional settlements were open and interconnected, while newer developments are increasingly enclosed. “So, firstly, if you build a high compound around your house, or if you put a big gate, that’s when you’re cutting your connection to the public, right? That is one of the most stark differences one can see,” she said.
This has implications for access within villages. “A child no longer has access to roads that once led to fields, and a farmer’s access to his land has become reduced or significantly narrower,” she said, referring to changes in land use and movement patterns.
The study also highlights growing pressure on natural resources, particularly water. Goa is currently facing a water deficit, and rising private consumption is contributing to this stress. “It’s not the pool that’s the issue, it’s the water inside that is privatised,” she said, referring to the spread of private amenities and their impact on shared resources.
She added that changes in water use are beginning to affect surrounding land systems. “So when you have people putting in higher, you know, walls and gates and, you know, all these intimidating elements for the common man, it sort of privatises a lot of amenities,” she said, linking built form to resource access.
At the same time, newer forms of construction are placing additional demands on infrastructure. “What is carrying capacity? Carrying capacity is studying firstly the resource consumption in the village and whether our villages are fit to accommodate so many people coming in,” she said.
Pereira also pointed to broader shifts in land use, including the consolidation of plots and increasing density of construction. These changes, she said, are altering the scale and functioning of villages, with implications for both ecology and everyday life.
Despite these trends, she said planning frameworks already exist to manage growth. “We have so much in place, it is just the implementation of it,” she said, referring to existing regulations and regional planning tools.
She added that decisions taken at the local level will play a critical role in shaping future outcomes. “Firstly, it is the people, the people of the village who will be accountable and also responsible, rather, for a lot of the development that will be taking place,” she said.
