HYDERABAD, April 29: The civil and irrigation authorities are yet to finalize a plan to provide clean drinking water to people after the release of polluted water from the Manchhar Lake into the River Indus through the Aral Wah point.

A decision about releasing water from the Manchhar Lake and its quantum is subject to endorsement by a committee formed by the irrigation department.

The committee comprises district coordination officers of Jamshoro and Dadu, and other officials. No water expert or health official has so far beennamed for on the committee.

Giving a briefing to media and NGO representatives here on Friday, Kotri Barrage Chief Engineer Manzoor Sheikh said it was necessary to release water to maintain the Manchhar Lake level at 105 feet before the monsoon season in order to avert breach in the lake’s embankments.

At present, the lake level stood at 109 feet against the dangerous level of 117 feet, he said.

“Irrigation authorities want to release around 1,500 cusecs per day in the River Indus, while the spot at which it would be released has a flow of around 21,000 to 22,000 cusecs.

According to a test conducted at the Public Health Engineering’s laboratory, water is to be released at the ratio of 1:10,” the CE said and added that Irrigation Secretary Ashfaq Memon had held out an assurance that with the release of water the flow from Sukkur Brrage downstream would also be increased by 6,000 cusecs to neutralize the contamination effect.

“The committee would decide about the timing and quantum of the lake water to be discharged into the river and the irrigation authorities would follow the decision.” “About 40 days are required to bring the Manchhar Lake level within safe limits,” the CE added.

The chief engineer said that 112-115 feet water level in Manchhar could play havoc with the lives of people living in the lake’s vicinity who had faced a similar situation in 1994 when breaches occurred in lake’s embankments.

DCO Hyderabad Mohammad Hussain Syed on the occasion presented reports of water’s tests conducted by Sindh University’s M.A. Kazi Institute of Chemistry, Wasa laboratory and the Drainage Research Institute of Pakistan, Tandojam.

“We will present these reports to the committee and health officials before they take any final decision. We would also try to obtain opinion of a Unicef official regarding the ratio of water to be released into Indus,” the DCO said and added that the M.A Kazi Institute had recommended the ratio of Manchhar Lake water for mixing in River Indus at 1:30 and Wasa at 1:35.

In reply to a question, the Kotri Barrage chief engineer said the irrigation secretary had closed off-taking canals of Guddu Barrage in order to divert their water to Sukkur downstream.

“I am concerned about the situation because people would ask me if anything goes wrong and if the committee said no water will be released then it will be ensured that no water is released,” he remarked when it was pointed out that same barrage officials had disowned their responsibility for a similar crisis last year saying that the Manchhar issue was related to Sukkur barrage.

Replying to another question, he said it was the job of irrigation secretary and not the Sukkur Barrage chief engineer to order release of water downstream Sukkur.