THATTA, June 6: The Sindh secretary for irrigation has said that water will be released for rice crop from June 12.

Talking to journalists at a marriage ceremony here on Saturday night , the official, Bashir Ahmad Dahar, said that due to shortage of water in the Tarbela Dam, Sindh was receiving water for Abkalani on a delayed schedule.

He said that over 200,000 cusecs of water was released from the Tarbela Dam in May and June last year but this year, only 80,000 cusecs could be discharged from the dam.

He said that lands in the command area of the Kotri Barrage needed 30,000 cusecs of water. He said that 22,000 cusecs of water which had been released from the Sukkur Barrage would reach the Kotri Barrage on June 12.

He said that Mohammad Khan Memon had been selected as a representative of Sindh in Irsa and a notification in this regard would soon be issued. He hoped that he would properly plead the case of province.

About release of water downstream Kotri, he said that the federal government was conducting a study in this regard. The secretary said that contaminated water of the Kotri industrial area was being released into the KB Feeder and effluent of the Hyderabad city was being released into the Phulelli Canal.

He said the water was unfit human consumption but it was the responsibility of the environmental department to tackle the issue.

BREACH: Crops were inundated when a breach developed in the Ganj Bahar Canal at RD-35 here on Sunday. Irrigation authorities, with the help of villagers, plugged the breach after four hours.

WINDS: High-velocity winds have damaged mud houses and uprooted trees in the coastal area of the district. Over two dozen villages in Keti Bunder, Shah Bunder, Kharo Chhan and Jati talukas have come under knee-deep water owing to high tide in the Arabian Sea. Roofs of about a dozen poultry and Pan farms as well as huts have also blown off.