Sindh Tourism department has failed to check growing pollution of Keenjhar Lake despite showing expenses worth millions of rupees in budget documents. The department has made tall claims on many occasions of taking measures to check discharge of effluent and pollutants into the lake, but the fact is that the lake is still being polluted.
"Keenjhar, Pakistan's second largest freshwater lake, a Ramsar site, a protected game sanctuary and the major source of drinking water of Karachi, needs protective measures on emergency basis," said a senior officer of the department who recently visited the lake. The official told Business Recorder that though several public sector departments, international donors and organisations, community-based organisations and non-governmental organisations were running different projects at the site, none had bothered to come forward to work towards the lake's preservation and making it pollution-free.
He said that the lake was crucial for Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) as it was the major source of drinking water to 1.8 million inhabitants of the city. Besides, the lake is also an important sanctuary of migratory birds that pass through Pakistan in winter, he added. "Highly contaminated industrial effluent is being poured into the lake without proper treatment," he said and regretted that none of the departments were interested in checking this.
Haleem Adil Shaikh, Founder Chairman Pakistan Relief Foundation (PRF) said that Keenjhar Lake was a main source of water supply to the entire population of Karachi. He said that he had visited the areas of Kotri, Baghar (KB) Feeder at Kotri, Choal, Nooriabad and Keenjhar, from where untreated industrial waste was being discharged into the lake. "As a result, seven children had died in Sonehri village near Keenjhar in the past," he added.
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