HYDERABAD, Dec 17 A provincial water release committee will meet on Thursday to decide the quantum of water to be released into River Indus from Manchhar Lake whose level is rising and release of water from it is becoming inevitable to save the lake's embankments.

On the other hand, the annual closure of Kotri Barrage is approaching fast and the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) which had faced a setback in storage of water due to November 10 breach in its third lagoon, is trying to fill its reservoirs before the closure takes place.

The committee was formed in the wake of an unprecedented water crisis which hit Hyderabad city in May 2,004, leading to deaths of around 42 people due to consumption of poisonous water released into the river without taking Wasa and Kotri Barrage authorities on board.

Officials of health and environment departments, Kotri and Sukkur barrages and Wasa and the Hyderabad Development Authority are members of the committee besides Hyderabad district government's water technologist Dr Mohammad Ahsan Siddiqui. District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil is the chairman of the committee.

Samples of water of the lake and river water at Kotri Barrage and at the point where lake water is mixed in it are normally collected to examine quality of water.

The water technologist has set up camps at various points of the river for regularly taking samples of water and proposing the said ratio. A recent report has revealed that the lake's water has become unfit for human consumption.—Staff correspondent