HYDERABAD, Jan 17: People’s Party Parliamentarians MNA has said that one of the biggest fresh water lakes in Asia, Manchhar Lake, has lost its beauty and its water has become poisonous due to indifferent attitude and wrong planning of the government.

As a result, 80,000 fishermen, who had a unique culture, had migrated from the lake area and million acres of rich agriculture land in Johi, Sehwan and adjoining areas had been seriously affected, he said in a statement faxed to Dawn on Wednesday.

He pointed out that effluent of industrial units of Punjab, Balochistan and upper Sindh was being discharged in the lake through Main Nara Valley drain. Due to it, he said, water level of Manchhar Lake had increased by 15-feet, posing a serious threat to more than 20 villages.

The MNA said that 95 per cent of the fish species which were found in the lake had become extinct, rendering tens of thousands of fishermen jobless. He regretted that the Right Bank Outfall Drain project, which was started in 2004, had not been completed yet and it would take another 10 years to complete the project. He criticized the changes in the design of the RBOD.