July 08, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 4, 1429

HYDERABAD, July 7: The discharge of Manchhar lake water into the River Indus began on Monday with release of 1,100 cusec water through Aral Wah after water technologist declared it fit for human consumption.

The water technologist Dr. Ahsan Siddiqui of National Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry of the University of Sindh, who works as consultant for the district government, supervised raising Aral Wah’s gate for release of water into the river at 11am.

According to him, 1,100 cusec of water was released as irrigation officials believed discharge of river at this point where lake’s water was to be mixed with river water for dilution was close to 47,000 cusec.

The Kotri Barrage control said that upstream discharge at Kotri had been recorded at 42,483 cusec while downstream stood at 3,594 cusec. Water discharge had been recorded at 70,510 cusec at Sukkur downstream and 124,760 cusec at upstream, it said.

The water technologist took water samples at a point called A.D. Baloch, five kilometres from Aral Wah inside the river after it mixed with river water and found presence of total dissolved solids (TDS) at 210 PPM at 3.30 pm in river water against permissible limit of 500 PPM as recommended by the WHO.

“No values of arsenic or mercury are found which indicates that water is fit for human consumption and the dilution level of 1,000 cusec of lake water into 40,000 cusec of river water proposed is followed,” he told Dawn.