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Stinking supply water in different places has multiplied the sufferings of the consumers, who have been facing acute shortage of water in recent days.
   The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, however, has collected samples of the malodorous water from different areas, including Wari, Sutrapur, Lalbagh, Elephant Road, Dhanmondi and Gulshan, but is yet to address the problem, the residents of these areas alleged.
   As the scanty amount of water supplied by the Dhaka WASA in recent days is too stinking to drink, people at different parts of the city alleged that they had no alternative to depend on bottled water for drinking and use water purifiers for other household woks like cooking.
   People at some areas alleged that there remained no water in the WASA lines for even a few days.
   Shahana Sultana, a college teacher and a resident on the Elephant Road, said they had been in crisis of water for the past few weeks, but when they got water after one or two days’ break it came with filth and bad smell.
   ‘The water does not become odorless even after boiling it for several hours,’ she said.
   Nasrin Akhter, a resident on the Central Road in Dhanmondi area, said, ‘Most of the time we get yellowish water with a bad smell and sometimes even with insects’
   She alleged that they lodged complaints several times with the Dhaka WASA, but the problem was not remedied.
   ‘We buy drinking water from a company but cannot have full confidence whether it is safe or not,’ said Shafi Ahmed, a resident at Tejgaon. Residents of Wari, Gandaria, Lalbagh and most parts of the Old Town are experiencing similar problem and not sure whether they are safe or not.
   A high official of Dhaka WASA, said they were trying to reduce the water contamination alongside smoothing its supply in the city.
   He said most of the time high rises and other big buildings illegally use their own pumps to draw the supply water and so the other small buildings do not get anything in the supply line.
   The WASA now lifts about 160 crore litres of water per day but the citizenry need is about 220 crore in the summer.
   The official admitted that old pipelines in the supply network and illegal sewerage lines are responsible for contamination and stench in the water supply.
   He said, ‘the Dhaka WASA has a master plan to replace the supply pipelines all over the city but it would take time as the process is merely at the preliminary stage.

A two-day environment fair began at Chhayanaut Cultural Building in Dhaka on Sunday with the aim to nurture the environment with folk knowledge.
   Muzaffer Ahmad, chairman of the Transparency International Bangladesh, inaugurated the fair organised by the Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge as chief guest.
   The fair featuring various programmes on environment-related issues is being held marking World Environment Day on Tuesday.
   The programmes include discussion, exhibition of posters, photos and paper cuttings, painting competition, staging of drama and screening of documentary on environment.
   A good many farmers from grassroots level, environmental activists and experts took part in the discussion.
   Muzaffer said, ‘We are now facing severe sound pollution and water crisis in the Dhaka city. Water crisis is a man-made problem. We are causing environmental destruction by unabated land grabbing.’
   ‘Rivers are essential parts of healthy environment. The fate of five rivers around the capital looms very frustrating.’
   ‘If we fail to help protect the five rivers, we will have to suffer environmental catastrophe in near future,’ the veteran green expert observed.
   BARCIK official Dewan Muhammad Ali Imran read out the keynote paper styled ‘Water for life, projects for water: where is the solution?’ at the discussion meeting chaired by Ashik Elahi, principal of the Shyamnagar Women Degree College, Satkhira,.
   Shibpada Boidya, a farmer of Chingrakhali village in Satkhira said, ‘We had no crisis of water, sources of foods like fishes, crops and fruits in the past. Now we are bound to depend on chemical fertiliser for high growth of crops. It is polluting our water bodies and as a result, different species of fishes have already disappeared and many faces extinction.’
   An ethnic woman peasant from Sunam Ganj, Putul Dio said, ‘In the recent past there were various water bodies like bills, canals, ponds and rivers in our localities. Now most of them have dried up to pollution. These have been filled up or silted.’ For the sake of environment and hazard-free life there, We need to protect the water-bodies, Putul felt.
   A farmer from Rajshahi, Ziaratullah said, ‘We are facing serious water crisis in our areas. We have no water to drink and take bath.’ The problem could be solved only by creating water flow in rivers in the areas, he observed.
    ‘We cannot cultivate our lands due to lack of water. Our rivers are dying. The Kaliganga and Dhaleshwari rivers have dried up. There is no water to be used in cultivation and for other purposes,’ a farmer from Manikganj said.
   The Global Water Partnership chairperson Kamrul Islam Siddiqui said, ‘Awareness among the rural level people can help to face the environment threat before us.’ He stressed the need for mutual understanding between with neighbouring countries to face the environmental challenge.
   About 100 school-children took part in the painting competition on various themes on environment. In the afternoon, Prachyanatya, a theatre group, staged its play Mandar which deals with the issues of environment. It was followed by screening of three documentary films.

The Sayedabad Park, one of the 47 parks in the city, has almost been destroyed due to the alleged negligence of the Dhaka City Corporation despite regular budgetary allocation for the park development.
   It would be impossible to make a stranger believe that there was a park at the place, close to the Sayedabad inter-district bus terminal, said the residents of the area.
   The total of 0.7 acres of park land has now become a waste dumping ground and not only that two public toilets have been constructed in the park.
   The bus operators have turned the area into a parking lot, grabbing a portion of the park illegally.
   A resident in the area, Rahim, said, ‘We have seen a complete park in the area 15 years back, but it has been destroyed over the years.’
   Quamruzzaman Chowdhury, the newly appointed chief estate officer of the DCC, said they had already handed over the responsibility of the parks to zone offices and the zone offices would look after the parks.
   The DCC in the financial year 2006-2007 allocated Tk 4.5 crore for park development. But the corporation has made no development work so far in this regard and the in the upcoming budget the allocation will be shown spent for development, said sources in the corporation.
   M Hemayet Hossain, zonal executive officer of zone-1 of DCC said, ‘We are only responsible to look after the parks. Responsibility for park development goes to the engineering department.
   He said, ‘We do not get any budget for any development of the park.’
   He expressed doubt whether there was any park at all at Syedabad.
   Mehedi Ali Khan, chief engineer of DCC also expressed doubt about the existence of a park there anytime before.
   Mehedi told New Age that it was so difficult to keep the park in the good shape in a place like Sayedabad.’
   Where has gone the money allocated for park development replying to the query the engineer said, ‘We have taken some development works including fencing and some rides for children for a couple of parks.’
   ‘In the next fiscal we will try to take some development works for the aforesaid park,’ the chief engineer said.

Charges were pressed against ten persons, including younger brother of the Barisal mayor and a ward commissioner, on Sunday for doing voice over internet protocol (VoIP) business and non-payment of telephone bills.
   Munim Hasan, magistrate of sadar upazila court, framed the charges against them in the presence of three accused — Mizan, Mamun and Mahbub Molla.
   One of the three, Mahbub surrendered to the court on the day but the magistrate rejected his bail prayer and ordered to send him to jail. The court also fixed dates for examining the witnesses from Tuesday to Thursday.
   Seven accused — Mizanur Rahman Wahid, younger brother of the mayor Majibar Rahman Sarwar, Mosharraf Ali Khan Badsha, BNP leader and commissioner of ward 12, Munir Hossain, Sanjeda Rahman, Liton Karmakar, Anwar Hossain Jewel and Apu Talukdar — went into hiding.
   According to the case, the accused on April 23, 2002 forced board staff to give 12 telephone connections in the false names and addresses. They later started doing VoIP business and even didn’t pay bills of over Tk 84 lakh.
   The joint forces arrested Mizanur Rahman, owner of Romance Business Centre, and his brother Mamunur Rahman on March 16, 2007. Mizan, now in custody, disclosed the names of his eight partners.
   The IO later included the names of the eight in the case and submitted charge sheet to the magistrate court against them.

Early detection of cancer can cure 90 per cent of the patients if proper treatment is taken, National Professor MR Khan told a seminar at the Dhaka Ahsania Mission Auditorium on Sunday.
   Ahsania Mission Cancer Hospital organised the seminar to mark World Cancer Survivors Day today.
   Two cancer survivors shared their views at the seminar, chaired by the president of DAM, Kazi Rafiqul Alam. Cancer specialist Professor Fazle Elahi presented the keynote paper at the seminar.
   Rafiqul Alam said cancer no more meant death. If detected early and proper treatment is taken, cancer is completely curable.
   ‘In case of uterus and breast cancer, the recovery rate is 90 per cent,’ he added saying that about 1,200
   women were screened recently for breast and uterus cancer at the camps, organised by the hospital at Mirpur in Dhaka.

Low-income group people such as rickshaw and van pullers, hawkers, roadside vendors and day labourers find it hard to earn their living in this hot, humid weather.
   Many of them, some affected by diseases such as diarrhoea and high fever, have stopped working.
   Wahid, a rickshaw puller who was drinking water from a bottle and waiting for passenger at Dhanmondi on Friday, said he could not work for two days as he was running high temperature. He also contracted diarrhoea.
   ‘I am left with no money to buy food for the day. I have four members in the family. This is why I got back to pulling rickshaw,’ he said. ‘I could get only two trips and now I feel too weak to move.’
   Sumon, who sells popcorn in road crossings, said he could not any popcorn on Friday. ‘I usually earn Tk 30 to 60 a day. But my earning went down to about a half in two days. Nobody now wants to buy popcorn.’
   Ibrahim, a roadside vendor, said, ‘We have no fixed place to sell our products. We need to sit in different places every other day. The situation has worsened in the summer heat.’
   Many people walking down the city roads on Friday took rest whenever they found any sheds. Some even sat under the trees in parks. Traffic remained thin towards noon.
   The Met Office said the country’s highest temperature on Sunday was recorded at 37.5 degrees Celsius at Ishurdi and Jessore and the lowest was in Dinajpur and the lowest, 22.0 degrees Celsius, in Mymensingh. Dhaka’s highest temperature on the day was 33.2 degrees Celsius and the lowest was recorded at 28.5 degrees Celsius. The highest and lowest temperature in Dhaka was 35.3 degrees Celsius and 23.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday.
   The hospitals are struggling to cope with a sudden rush of diarrhoeal patients with hundreds of sufferers reporting every day.
   About 500 patients with complaints of diarrhoeal diseases have been admitted to the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh hospital this week, said the hospital authorities.
   Medical experts have suggested people to drink pure water as heavy sweating causes losses of salt and water in the body.

A three-day Jasimuddin Festival, organised by the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, began on Sunday at the academy’s National Theatre Hall at Segun Bagicha in Dhaka.
   Inaugurating the festival, Mohammad Jahanagir, coordinator of the dance troupe Nrityanchar, recalled that Poet Jasimuddin was a leading figure among his contemporaries who wrote staying out of the influence of Rabindranath Tagore.
   Terming Shilpakala Academy’s initiative as remarkable, he also suggested that a conference of the artists, who performed in Jasimudin’s ‘Nakshikanthar Math’ on different occasions, should be organised. Chaired by the academy secretary, Ashraful Mosaddeq, the inaugural function was attended, among others by Zeenat Barkatullah, the director of production department of the academy.
   Mosaddeq said Poet Jasimuddin wrote on very normal causes of happiness as well as sadness of the common rural people.
   Besides staging ‘Nakshikan-thar Math’ on Sunday, dance drama ‘Kabar’ will be staged today while the third and concluding day’s programmes include a soiree of folksongs. The function will begin at 7:00pm.

A two-day ikebana exhibition begins at the National Museum in the capital today.
   The Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh, Masayuki Inoue, will inaugurate the exhibition to be organised by the Japan Embassy in Dhaka, Japanese Ikebana School in Dhaka, ABKD Flower Club, JICA Alumni Association and Japanese Universities Alumni Association.
   The cultural affairs secretary, ABM Abdul Haque Chowdhury, will attend the programme as chief guest while the National Museum director general, Samar Chandra Paul, as special guest.
   Two Japanese Ikebana experts — Ishiwata Masafumi and Sasayama Yasufumi— arrived in Dhaka to take part in the event. Local Ikebana teachers will also participate in the programme.

A furniture trader was shot at by unidentified assailants at Sutrapur in old Dhaka on Sunday.
   The police said, Moslem, a furniture trader of Sutrapur area, came under gun attack by a gang at about 2.30pm while was passing through Satish Sarker Road in a rickshaw.
   The assailants opened fire on Moslem indiscriminately leaving him critically injured, they said.
   He was taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The motive behind the attack could not be known.

Rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at one or two places over Rajshahi, Dhaka, Khulna, Sylhet and Chittagong divisions during the 24-hour period till 6:00pm today, the Met Office said on Thursday.
   Southwest monsoon has advanced up to Teknaf coast and it may advance up to Chittagong today.
   The mild to moderate heat wave that is sweeping Khulna and Rajshahi divisions and the regions of Faridpur, Tangail and Madaripur may continue, it predicted.
   The country’s highest temperature on Sunday, 37.5 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Ishurdi and in Jessore and the lowest, 22.0 degrees Celsius, in Mymensingh.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:43pm and rises tomorrow at 5:11am.

Ctg mobile court
jails one
A mobile court in Chittagong on Sunday sentenced one person to six months of imprisonment and fined him Tk 50,000 for selling medicines with crossed expiry dates. The court, led by special metropolitan magistrate Mohammed Munir Chowdhury, meted out the punishment to MA Mansur, proprietor of Helal Medico at South Halishahar in the city. The court also seized substandard and date expired medicines worth Tk one lakh from the pharmacy alongside recovering medicines supplied by the government to different agencies. The court sealed off the pharmacy, and asked the Drug Administrator to cancel the license.

Clinic sealed
off in Rajshahi
The civil surgeon of Rajshahi sealed off the Mohanagar Clinic in the city’s Laxmipur area Saturday evening. The clinic was earlier fined Tk 40,000 by the army-led joint forces on Thursday. The decision to seal off the clinic was taken by the joint forces during the drive, but the decision could not be implemented as there were a few patients then. The clinic was sealed off after the patients had vacated it on Friday.
— New Age