THE fishermen who survive on fish catch from Manchar Lake are looking for some better days ahead as a result of a fresh flow of water released into the lake following last month’s floods.

But according to water technologist Dr Ahsan Siddiqui, who regularly monitors the lake’s water quality, these fresh flows are not enough for the lake’s rehabilitation. Comparatively, more water was available in August 2013 to adequately feed the lake.

Fishermen say fish weighing 0.5kg will be available in the lake by next January. Such a size of fish is sold for around Rs200 per kg. Normally, commercially viable species like rohu, morakha and theli are found in the lake. But their production has dropped drastically over the years.

Historical record, according to Mohammad Ali Shah, chairperson of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), shows that fish production in the lake has fallen from 55,000 tonnes in 1940 to 3,000 tonnes in 1996. Now it is merely a couple of hundred tonnes.

The current water level in the lake rose to 110.05RL (still a low level) on September 29, from 109.05RL ten days earlier. Flood waters in the downstream Sukkur barrage are diverted to the lake through an irrigation channel for its rehabilitation.

Besides, the water from the lake — which is also a source of irrigation water — would be used for wheat cultivation in the surrounding area. These irrigated lands are located in Jhangara, Chhinni and Shah Hassan.

According to irrigation officers, around 40 channels (wahs) are connected with Danister and Aral, which irrigate lands in these areas. Although actual data is not available, some growers believe that the lake irrigates around 30,000 acres. Rains and hill torrents feed the lake as well.

These channels are the Manchar Lake’s inlet and outlet sources that feed it with fresh water from the Indus or release its polluted water into the river when it has adequate water flows. The contaminated water affects soil fertility and productivity.

According to Dr Siddiqui, the situation in the lake was relatively much better last year. A flow of 454,000 cusecs was recorded in downstream Sukkur on August 24, 2013, while the lake’s water level was recorded at 111.07RL on the same day. The maximum level of the lake, according to the irrigation department’s standing operating procedure, is fixed at 114.50RL.

A pumping station at Danister wah which was damaged in the super floods of 2010 has been re-installed and refurbished to serve as a permanent source of water for nearby agricultural lands. For high lands in Jhangara, water is lifted from the channels connected with Danister.

PFF’s Mustafa Mirani, who lives in the Manchar Lake area, points out that fresh flow into the lake would improve its water quality to some extent and would also be used for agriculture. It would improve the lake’s ecology and migratory birds will return as well. “Fishermen are likely to make better returns next year,” he observed.

Siddiqui, however, says heavy flows of floodwater in the Indus bring insoluble sands with them, which settle in the lake’s bed to overcome its toxicity. The lake’s water quality is presently not up to the desired level given the fact that the maximum level of TDS (total dissolved solids) was recorded at 5,000PPM and the minimum at 2,400PPM at Aral wah regulator on September 21. Such a quality of water, he notes, would affect soil fertility.

The lake had been a source of livelihood for hundreds of fishermen families. But continuous contamination by poisonous flow from the Main Nara Valley Drain (MNVD) has forced a majority of fishermen of the area to migrate to different coastal parts of Karachi and even to Balochistan. Fishermen migrate seasonally every year as well, leaving their children and womenfolk back home. They take loans from middlemen for business during this period.

The MNVD — built by Wapda — starts from the Qambar-Shahdadkot area and ultimately falls in Manchhar. It brings polluted water not only from Punjab but from Balochistan. Asia’s biggest freshwater lake, Manchhar, owes its destruction to the MNVD and the Right Bank Outfall Drain-I (RBOD).

It is only in September and October that the MNVD gets some amount of fresh water flows of the rice canal after rice cultivation is completed in its command area in upper Sindh. A multi-billion-rupee project of RBOD-II, which would take the effluent to the Arabian Sea near Thatta (thus bypassing Manchar Lake), has been left incomplete for a long time. The government is yet to restart the work after the incomplete infrastructure was damaged in the 2010 floods.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, October 6th, 2014