ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: The Sindh government is seeking to enhance the scope of the third phase of the Right Bank Outfall Drain to save around 14,000 hectares of land in Sindh and Balochistan, officials said on Thursday.

They said that it would raise the project’s cost between Rs13 billion and Rs20 billion.

A government official said that the provincial government would delineate proposed enhancements in the project in the meeting of the central development working party (CDWP), which is scheduled to meet here on Nov 8.

Sources said the prime minister had already approved the RBOD-III about two months ago, adding that it envisaged the disposal of the waste water from the RBOD-III into Manchar Lake, and ultimately into River Indus or the RBOD-II waterway. The Sindh government had raised objections to the project at a previous CDWP meeting, officials said.

Sindh authorities, they said, had said that they would not allow the use of Manchar Lake for the disposal of effluent from the RBOD-III as a lot of damage had already been caused by the RBOD-II.

Mancher Lake, sources quoted Sindh officials as saying, was now in the process of revival because of the rain water accumulation, adding that the RBOD-II did not have sufficient capacity to absorb the waste water from the RBOD-III.

The CDWP had asked irrigation secretaries of Sindh and Balochistan to discuss the issue with Wapda authorities to find out a solution.

Subsequently, they said, the meeting of irrigation secretaries decided to enhance the capacity of the RBOD-II to accommodate the inflow of additional water.

It was noted that out of a total 1,600 cusecs of additional water from the RBOD-III, about 400 cusecs could be recharged for utilisation in Balochistan.

The meeting also proposed that remaining 1,200 cusecs of effluent should be diverted into the RBOD-II by enhancing its existing capacity from 2,200 cusecs to about 3,500 cusecs.

Officials said that the Sindh government had, in a working paper submitted to the CDWP, proposed to bridge the funding gap through federal resources.

The RBOD-III is expected to be completed by June 2005 and benefit more than 8,000 hectares in Balochistan and around 6,000 hectares in Sindh.