Manchhar lake cleaning: Supreme Court orders government to release funds for RBOD project

The Supreme Court (SC) has directed the Federal Government to release current fiscal year's funds allocated for Right Bank Outfall Drain-II (RBOD) project, whereas report was sought from Wapda on prevailing situation of power supply to Manchhar Lake desalination plants within a month.
A three-member bench comprising Justice Shakir Ullah Jan, Justice Jawad S Khawaja and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany passed the orders while hearing a suo motu case relating to contamination of Manchhar Lake which was polluted due to disposal of effluent from Main Nara Valley Drain (MNVD) and presently converted into RBOD.
During the course of hearing, K K Agha, Additional Attorney General, told the bench that funds for the project were allocated from Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) but previous year's floods as well as devolution of some ministries and bad economic situation had forced the policy makers to observe substantial cut in the PSDP allocations from various projects and the program was slashed.
Aslam Ansari, Additional Secretary, Irrigation Department, Sindh, informed the bench that the Federal Government has provided Rs 2.6 billion out of allocated amount of Rs 5 billion for RBOD-II project. Ansari said that the actual cost of the RBOD-II was estimated at Rs 29 billion but delay in funds release increased the cost of the project to Rs 40 billion. Praying the bench he said that the Federal Government may be directed to release rest of the amount during the current fiscal year.
Wapda Counsel Moazzam Rizvi informed the court that of six desalination plants for the Lake, Wapda has installed three. However, other three would be installed byOctober. He further told the bench that the Sindh government had to install six plants as well, and Wapda has been given funds for installation of 6 desalination plants, adding that these 6 plants would be finalised by the end of December whereas capacity of each plant is 6,000 gallon per day.
The court directed Wapda to also supply electricity for desalination plants. Justice Jawad observed what would be the benefit of installing desalination plants if there is no electricity in that area. He said hardly people of that area get power one-hour a day. The Wapda had submitted a report, but the court expressed its dissatisfaction, saying whether had any official of Wapda or Irrigation Department Sindh visited the site. The court observed that reports are compiled while sitting in offices and no one visit sthe the site to see the ground realities.
Justice Jawad S.Khawaja said in his remarks that water contamination was a big issue which should be dealt with by considering it sensitive, and added that the officials should visit the site and analyse the situation. Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany said that the livelihood of thousands of people residing there depended upon the Mancher Lake where pollution has negatively impacted and tens of thousands fishes have died. The court adjourned the hearing till September 19.