ISLAMABAD, Dec 3: The famous Manchhar Lake has been polluted due to excessive discharge of water from the main Narvalley drain into the lake, the upper house of parliament was informed here on Friday.

Federal Minister for Environment Maj (retired) Tahir Iqbal, in a written reply, told the Senate that the Harddein drain which emanated from Balochistan was ultimately discharged into the Narvalley drain via Larkana district.

The Narvalley drain is a canal which carries highly saline and polluted water from Balochistan and Larkana. It is also taking pollution from other sources like untreated sewage, agriculture run-off and municipal effluent, the minister said.

He said due to continuous pouring of pollutants, the embankments of Manchhar Lake and its adjoining areas were severely affected by the pollution. The minister said the Senate's standing committee on environment was earlier briefed that since the loss of life in Manchhar Lake area was caused due to diarrhoea, it was not possible to identify whether the same had occurred due to consuming contaminated food or drinking polluted water.

Similar findings have also been reported by a Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pepa) team which had visited hospitals in Hyderabad city and met with officials, he added.

In this regard, the Sindh government has taken remedial measures through district coordination officers (DCOs) of Dadu and Hyderabad, the health department, Wasa and Sindh Environmental Protection Agency.

The Senate was told that in coordination with these offices, people of the affected area were made aware of the deterioration of drinking water quality through use of pamphlets and holding open hearing.

The minister said mobile camps were dispatched for medical aid to the affected people living in the adjoining areas of the lake. Water and Sanitation Authority, Hyderabad, with the support of Unicef has started chlorination of the drinking water supplied to the district, he added.

He said Sindh Environmental Protection Agency was closely monitoring the lake and had collected water samples from the Manchhar Lake, Aral Wah, Dinistar Wah and Indus River at Kotri Barrage to assess the contamination level.

It is expected that with proposed diversion of Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD), a project planned by Wapda, the pollution in the Manchhar Lake could effectively be addressed.