HYDERABAD, Dec 19: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Tuesday directed the additional advocate general (AAG) of Sindh to water technologists and environmentalists in the court to give their viewpoints on levels of contamination in Indus River water after release of Manchhar Lake water into the river.

A division bench comprising Justice Mohammad Moosa K Leghari and Justice Maqbool Baqar issued the directive on three separate public interest litigations by Ishaque Qureshi Advocate, Faheemuddin and Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (SCOPE), an NGO.

The court asked the AAG Masood A Noorani to call Faculty of Natural Sciences Dean Prof Dr Mohammad Yar Khuhawar, research scholar of National Centre of Excellence and Analytical Chemistry, University of Sindh, Dr Ahsan Siddiqui as well as an official of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give their viewpoint in court on Thursday.

The petitions were filed in 2004 when 42 people had died after drinking water, which was mixed with lake's contaminated water supplied to them by Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) of Hyderabad.

Petitioner Mr Qureshi argued that Manchhar’s contaminated water had once again been released into the river forgetting the fact that it had already led to a tragedy in the city and its vicinity in 2004 causing deaths of 42 people.

He cast doubt on the water testing being carried out by Wasa and advised that the tests should be conducted by Prof Dr Mohammad Yar Khuhawar.

The court noticed that no environmental official had been involved in the process of water testing mechanism by irrigation department and questioned why Manchhar's water was getting increasingly polluted and why no measures had so far been taken to make it clean.

The AAG submitted to the court a report of secretary irrigation with a chart sheet of four hourly water testing of Manchhar water and that of River Indus at the Wasa intake points and said that water had so far been declared fit for human consumption.

He said that he would call an environmental official and two university officials. He would ensure the presence of EDO of revenue to answer the court's queries about non-payment of compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased who had still not been paid money.

Three heirs complained of non-payment of compensation for the death of their dear ones.

The court adjourned the hearing till Thursday.