Keenjhar Lake scare: Scientist suspects explosion caused release of toxins that killed animals

Poison mixed in Huri canal that overflowed into the lake after rains.

KARACHI: Toxins could have seeped into Keenjhar Lake after an explosion that caused these elements to mix with the Huri Canal that overflowed into the lake as a result of rains four days ago.

“According to my observations, it looks as if someone may have caused an explosion for construction and they never checked what was underneath the soil to determine whether there were any toxic elements below,” said Dr Mohammad Ahsan Siddiqui, an international water technologist who is conducting the chemical analysis of the water. “Usually alkali or acid kills animals with this kind of speed and in this manner.”

Keenjhar Lake is a wildlife sanctuary and according to Dr Siddiqui “not even a rock can be moved over there.”

Dr Siddiqui’s analysis will be completed on Friday but he says that most likely that the toxin is an organic compound and that urea was used to cause an explosion, possibly for the construction of a tank to store water. Cows that consumed the toxic and pungent water, which turned a blackish colour, lost their skin within a day of dying which is a completely unnatural decomposition, according to Dr Siddiqui.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) natural resource manager, Jehangir Durrani, who has been working in the area for over twelve years, says, “At the moment we don’t know the source and we’ve been to four or five kilometres around the area and have not found any factories that could have dumped something that has caused this much damage.”

Durrani says it is possible that material was dumped here.

According to Dr Siddiqui, the element in the water was so toxic that it killed all the wildlife in the water including Carp, Tilapia, Rohu, Catfish, freshwater mussels, turtles as well as cattle and jackals that drank it.

Impact on Karachi

The contamination of a portion of the lake initially stirred panic as Karachi gets part of its water supply from Keenjhar.

Raw untreated water was tested both Wednesday and Thursday and according to the water board both of the tests showed no sign of contamination but the scare sent Sindh Minister for Commerce and Industries Rauf Siddiqui into action.

A source close to the minister told The Express Tribune that after two days of meetings, Siddiqui has ordered an uncompleted effluent treatment plant to be completed by May 30. Seventy per cent of the plant was completed but funding for the remaining 30% had been delayed. Funding is expected to be released within ten days and work will be done in two to three shifts to speed it up.

Dumping points for waste will be analysed by the ministry and pinpointed so incidents like this don’t occur in the future, but sources added that it still has not been confirmed whether any factory was actually responsible for this incident.

“A very small portion of the lake has actually been contaminated and there is too much water in the entire lake for it to be able to pollute the whole lake,” said Dr Siddiqui.

Solutions

Dr Siddiqui advises that the Huri Canal be stopped from dumping any water into the lake and for all cattle to be kept away from freshwater sources on that side.

“The rainwater coming from the mountains in the coming days will be able to cleanse the lake of contaminants and there is little chance that it enters the water in Karachi. It won’t even affect a large part of Keenjhar Lake.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2012.