HYDERABAD/DADU, May 22: Gastroenteritis claimed lives of two fishemen in Dadu on Saturday and of a boy in Kotri on Friday as the disease continued to spread due to consumption of contaminated water of the River Indus.

A large number of people are suffering from stomach diseases in villages around the Manchhar Lake.

Some 21 patients were admitted to the basic health unit, Jhangara, on Saturday who had consumed contaminated water of the lake.

Those died were identified as Allah Bux Thatiar, 55, and Ghulam Haider Mallah, 42, residents of Rehman Mallah village and Dhorotar, respectively.

In charge BHU of Jhangara Dr Sattar Bughio said that the main cause of the outbreak of the stomach disease around Manchhar villages was consumption of contaminated water of the lake.

He said that the lake's polluted water had badly affected the residents of 13 villages.

Dr Bughio said that some 158 patients were reported to the BHU in the last 50 days.

Meanwhile, a team of the World Health Organization, led by its Sindh operational chief Dr G.N. Qazi and Basic Development Needs Programme manager Dr Khadim Lakhair visited several parts of the Manchhar Lake on Saturday.

The team members obtained water samples from Tar Shah, Shah Hassan, Kangsar and Bubak villages.

They advised the fishermen not to consume lake's water and assured them that hand pumps would be sunk for them at different places around the lake.

Dr G.N. Qazi said that the WHO would extend the scope of its operational programme to all corners of the lake.

He said that medical facilities would be provided to fishermen of the lake.

Dr Khadim Lakhair said that the lake water had become harmful after the release of saline water from the main Nara valley.

He said that fishermen should not consume the lake water until fresh water was not released into it.

The Kotri Taluka Hospital on Saturday confirmed the death of one more gastroenteritis patient.

Hospital in-charge Dr Tufail Ahmad Memon told journalists at the circuit house here that Wajahat, 6, a resident of Mohajir Colony in Kotri, had been brought dead to the hospital on Friday. He said that according to his family the boy was suffering from gastroenteritis.

A child, Ghulam Hussain, and a woman, Parveen Akhtar, had also died of the disease, caused by drinking contaminated water, at City and Latifabad hospitals on Friday.