Following successfully completing growing crops from saline water being extracted from Thar Coal mines, Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) on Tuesday announced to have successfully undertaken a pilot project to grow fish from the saline water. According to SECMC’s Chief Operating Officer Syed Abul Fazal Rizvi, SECMC, the firm mining coal at Thar Coal Field’s Block II, which successfully completed a pilot project of biosaline agriculture by growing crops on underground water, has also attained the success of marketable fish farming on the brine being extracted from the Coal Field’s 2nd and 3rd aquifers. About seven species of fish including Morakhi (Mrigal Carp), Rohu (Labea Rohita), Theli, Kuriro, Gulfam, African Catfish, and Dangri (Barramundi) are being raised in a small pond inside the Ansari Green Park, he said. He informed that after the successful piloting, the company plans to raise fish on a large scale in Gorano Reservoir some 35 km away from the mining area. He said, “We were quite hopeful of the result we are witnessing today when we started seeding fish last year in November. Today, now that the project is becoming a success, couple it with our biosaline agriculture and it will change the landscape of Thar when it comes to livelihood opportunities,” He said that the groundwater extracted from the depth of 180m, containing around 5000 ppm of TDS level, has been used for fish farming. “The same water is being released into the Gorano Reservoir where the said project is planned to be extended to,” he said adding that, “Continuous monitoring for the past 04 months revealed the survival rate of the said fish at 90 percent.” Detailing the project, he informed that about 100,000 fish eggs will be released into the reservoir to have about 200,000 kilos of fish. “The company does not intend to earn any profit for itself, but we want to prove that the project’s success and train the local communities on fish farming to help them broaden their scope of livelihood opportunities,” he concluded.