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The Sayedabad and Chandnighat water treatment plants may turn useless by five years if the pollution of the rivers Buriganga and Shitalakhya goes unabated, sources in the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority said.
   ‘If pollution of the rivers Buriganga and Shitalakhya continuous, toxicity will go beyond the level of purification making the plants useless after 5 years, and it will ultimately create an acute crisis of water in the city,’ a high official of the water agency warned.
   The Sayedabad and Chandnigaht water treatment plants, which use the water of Shitalakhya and Buriganga respectively supply about 22 crore and 1.50 crore litres of water against the daily WASA supply of 170 crore litres of water.
   ‘The water of the River Shitalakhya has become so polluted that we have to use chemicals almost double the normal, which makes the supplied WASA water stinking,’ the official said.
   Besides, industrial waste contains toxic like chromium, mercury and lead a certain level of which can be treated in the plants, he said.
   A number of canals in the Dhaka city carry a large quantity of untreated swage, industrial and other waste into the River Balu that flows into the Shitalakhya, he said and suggested that pollution of the city canals and the River Balu has to be reduced to control Shitalakhya pollution.
   Waste from Moghbazar, Sayedabad, Mugda, Manda, Basabo, Madartek and adjoining areas, through the WASA sewers, flows into the Debdholai and Narai canals and then find way into Sitalakkhya through the Balu, WASA sources said.
   Industries in Tejgaon and Mohakhali areas also pour waste into the river Balu through the Begunbari canals and in other means, they said.
   Pollution of Buriganga is turning grave because of untreated human and industrial waste, WASA officials said, adding that waste of the tanneries in Hazaribagh and Jigatala was mainly responsible for the pollution.
   A 5-kilometre area from Sharulia water intake point of the Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant has already become severely polluted, which forced WASA to think shifting of the intake point elsewhere, said the official.
   A feasibility study will be carried out for the planned Khilkhet Treatment Plant as well as for the shifting of the intake point of Sayedabad plant soon, they said.
   No effective step has been taken yet against the industries that are dumping waste into different rivers and canals in and around the city as most of the industries still running without effluent treatment plants, the senior WASA official said.
   Most of the industries failed to meet the October 31, 2007 deadline to open Letters of Credit for setting up ETPs and December 31, 2007 deadline to set up ETPs, he said.
   An official of the environment ministry said with the expiry of the deadline to set up ETPs, they had issued letters to the owners of different industries asking them to inform the ministry of the initiatives taken by them about the setting up of the ETPs.
   ‘Some of the industries have informed us that they have opened LCs. We will go for action against the industries which have failed to open LCs for setting up ETPs after holding a meeting soon,’ he said.
   According to the Environment Conservation Rule, 1997, every industry should have an ETP, otherwise, it will not get environmental clearance from the Department of Environment, which is mandatory for obtaining power and gas connections.

The Khulna City Corporation will develop a park stretching two kilometres on the bank of River Moyur and another park on one kilometre area by the side of River Rupsha to protect the rivers from encroachers, corporation officials said.
   The Moyur gradually turned into a stagnant water body after the city protection embankment had been built in 1982-83 at Alutala in Batiyaghata, the confluence of Rupsha and Moyur.
   Dumping of household wastes by city dwellers into the River Moyur also polluted its water seriously and turned the river almost dead.
   The KCC has drawn up a project of Tk 19 crore to set up the parks and submitted a proposal to the ministry of Local Government and Engineering Department from where it was sent to the Planning Commission, the sources said.
   The expenditure includes Tk 11 crore for acquisition of land along the banks of the rivers, Tk 1.5 crore for filling up lowland and the remaining money to be spent for development works and construction of different structures.
   The proposed parks will be 100 feet wide on both the sides of the Moyur stretching from Gallamari Bridge point to its north evicting all encroachers.
   The silted riverbed is planned to be excavated and keep the water free from pollution, the planners said.
   A long walkway, different kinds of rides, two footbridges, benches, a watchtower and flowerbeds will be included in the recreational parks, they said, adding that there will be boats available on hire.
   Besides, four jetties, a few rides and some boats will also be available in the one-kilometre park on one side of the Rupsha starting from nearby Wahab jute mills point, they said.
   Sources also informed that members of the Planning Commission have already visited the sites and verbally expressed satisfaction. They expressed the hope that the work of the project may start from July next.
   Alamgir Islam Lavlu, a green activist and also the director of Samaj Progoti Sangstha, talking to New Age, demanded easy access to the river for the people who depend on it for earning livelihood.
   KCC acting mayor, Moniruzzaman Moni said the process to establish the parks is going on and if all the process goes on normally, the corporation will be able to start the project by July, 2008.
   The KCC has six small parks in the city, home to nearly 15 lakh people for which the authorities have planned to establish the recreational parks along the riversides.

Weeklong programmes marking the 12th founding anniversary of the Liberation War Museum and Independence Day began on the museum premises at Segunbagicha in Dhaka on Saturday.
   The inaugural day’s programmes included dance, music and opening of a book fair on the war of independence. The fair will remain open from 10:00am to 7:00pm every day till the concluding day of the programmes on March 28.
   Indian-Bangali trainer at the Liberation War Training Camp Devendra Sthanapati delivered the founding anniversary speech in the inaugural session. Museum trustee and member secretary Sarwar Ali presented the annual report on the museum activities.
   Devendra said, ‘I realise that imparting training to the freedom fighters of Bangladesh during its war of independence in 1971 is my best job. I feel proud of it. I hope Bangladesh will reach its goal upholding the spirit of the war in 1971.’
   Sarwar said, ‘Till December 2007, our total collection was 14,932. But, due to scarcity of space only 1,300 can be exhibited.’
   ‘We have appealed to the government for a land and hope to get it soon,’ he continued.
   The weeklong programmes, excepting for the book fair, will begin in the afternoon every day, except the Independence and National Day on March 26. On the day, the programmes will begin at 9:30am.
   The programmes include art camp, poetry recitation, musical performance, staging of play, discussions and dance.
   On the opening day, artiste Anisul Islam Hero, school students Rupali Modok, Mir Arifur Rahman, Sulata Rani Sharma, Bipul Bhattacharya, Nomita Ghosh and Kalyani Ghosh performed in a dance show, reading of first hand stories of 1971 and musical performance.
   Separate programmes will also be held at the Mirpur Jalladkhana as part of the founding anniversary celebration of the Liberation War Museum.
   Eight eminent personalities founded the museum on March 22, 1996 with the aim to present before the next generation the documents on the war of independence in 1971. The founding trustees of the museum include Sarwar Ali, Aly Zaker, Rabiul Husain, Ziauddin Tariq Ali, Sara Zaker, Asaduzzaman Noor, Akuu Chowdhury and Mofidul Hoque.

The book fair in Rajshahi gained momentum on the third day on Saturday with hundreds of booklovers thronging the fair on the Rajshahi Government Collegiate School campus to buy various types of books.
   Some famous publishers of Dhaka along with the local publishers are participating in the fair in 25 stalls. A wide range of books of poems, fiction, essays and history, especially of the war of independence, are being sold in the fair, which will end Tuesday.
   Anushua Chakraborty Pritha, a Class V student of Government P N Girls High School in Rajshahi, said she had bought a detective story book for Tk 120 and a novel for Tk 80 from the fair.
   He bought a book of science fiction by Zafar Iqbal, his favorite writer, said Amit Kumar Das, a Class XI student of New Government Degree College in Rajshahi.
   ‘I am happy to buy a novel from the fair,’ said Subrata Das, a college teacher in Rajshahi.
   ‘I am thankful to the organisers for holding such a wonderful fair in Rajshahi this year. The fair has given me an opportunity to see a variety of books,’ said Moushumi Maitra, a university student of Rajshahi.
   The dwellers of Rajshahi are deriving benefit from this fair as many of them cannot go to the month-long Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka,’ said a teacher of Bangla department of Rajshahi College.
   The young generation is mostly interested in books dealing with the history of liberation war of Bangladesh, said Chandan Kumar, owner of the Magazine Corner while talking to New Age, adding he had already sold around 122 books of this kind.
   Long queues were formed at the entrance in the afternoon during the holidays on Friday and Saturday as officials and employees of the government offices, businessmen and professionals came to visit the fair along with their families.
   Rathindra Nath, a government official, said, ‘I do not get much time to visit any place on working days. So I have come to the fair today which is a holiday.’
   Rajshahi deputy commissioner’s office organised a book launching programme as a part of the fair. A total of 123 books were launched in the fair till Saturday.
   Discussions and cultural programmes are also held in the fair every day.
   At the discussion on Saturday, Begum Shirina Akhter Lina, associate professor of Political Science of Rajshahi Teachers’ Training College, presented a keynote paper on ‘the role of teachers to inculcate the habit of reading’. Presided over by Professor Farida Sultana, the discussion was attended by Professor Shikha Roy as chief guest and by Professor Dr KM Shazahan Karim as special guest.
   The discussion was followed by a cultural programme in the afternoon.

The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police will resume the special drive against unfit motor vehicles in the first week of April, BRTA officials said.
   The BRTA and DMP launched the special drive on February 26 and continued it till March 6 in a bid to curb the plying of vehicles having no documents and to take action against drivers having fake licenses, they said, adding this time the drive would last for at least two weeks.
   The drive will be conducted simultaneously at four busy points in the capital, they added.
   Apart from the joint BRTA and DMP special drive, BRTA runs a regular mobile court drive four days a week in the capital, BRTA official said.

The Rapid Action Battalion arrested two persons and seized a taxicab and 472 bottles of Phensidyl at Yousufpur in Charghat upazila of Rajshahi on Saturday.
   The arrested are cabbie Jakir Hossain, 30, of Tangi area in Gazipur and Saidur Rahman, 24, of Yousufpur.
   According to the battalion, acting on secret information, a RAB team launched a drive in Yousufpur and searched the taxicab Saturday morning.
   As the RAB members found 472 bottles of contraband Phensidyl syrup in the cab, they arrested Jakir and Saidur.
   RAB handed over the arrested persons and seized Phensidyl and cab to the concerned police station after filing a case.
   The police produced the arrested persons before the court the same day.

Rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at one or two places over all the six divisions — Rajshahi, Dhaka, Sylhet, Khulna, Barisal and Chittagong — of the country during the 24-hour period till 6:00pm today, the Met Office said.
   The day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.
   The country’s highest temperature on Saturday, 36.2 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Rajshahi and the lowest, 18.0 degrees Celsius, at Sylhet.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:11pm and rises tomorrow at 5:59am.

World Water Day was observed in the country on Saturday with a call for making concerted efforts by the government and non-governmental organisations to ensure safe drinking water for all.
   Discussants at different functions also stressed the need for ensuring sanitation for all to check the spread of waterborne diseases. They made the call at the functions organised to mark World Water Day.
   The United Nations designated March 22 as World Water Day which is observed every year as an annual reminder of acute water crisis prevailing in the developing communities around the world.
   ‘It is possible to prevent waterborne diseases through practising proper hand washing,’ LGRD and cooperatives adviser Anwarul Iqbal said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of International Year of Sanitation 2008 and National Hand Washing Campaign.
   Practising proper hand washing during handling food and after defecation could prevent about 70 per cent of waterborne diseases that killed many children as well as adults.
   He said, ‘At least 1.25 lakh children under the age of five die of diarrhoea that can be halved or so by obsessing personal hygiene and drinking safe water as most of waterborne diseases are caused by contaminated water.’
   The diarrhoeal patients who survive also suffer from malnutrition and consequently their physical and mental growth is severely hampered, the adviser said.
   Speakers at the programme stressed the importance of mass awareness about the hygiene to protect public health, water resources and environment. Many people would suffer from diarrhoea, cholera, jaundice and other diseases and children would be worst victims, if awareness was not created among the people about hygiene and sanitation, they observed.
   The programme was jointly organised by the government, NGO Forum, Department for International Development, World Health Organisation and UNICEF.
   Professor of BUET Muhammad Mujibur Rahman, executive director of NGO Forum SMA Rashid, country representative of DFID Chris Austin, Paul Edwards of UNICEF, WHO representative Duangvadee Sungkhobol, LGD secretary Shaikh Khurshid Alam and chief engineer of Department of Public Health Engineering Mujibur Rahman also spoke.
   Coalition of Local NGOs organised a discussion in Dhaka. Its chairman Harunur Rashid presided over the discussion, said a press release.
   Discussants at the meeting criticised India for its move to build barrage at the upstream of the Ganges and Brahmaputra basins. Unilateral withdrawal of water by India had been causing serious harm to ecosystem in Bangladesh and its people, they said.

Grameenphone Limited will fund for the fist time in Bangladesh a pilot vaccination programme to prevent cervical cancer among economically disadvantaged young women, said a press release on Saturday.
   The vaccination programme will be administered by the Bangladesh Medical Collage Hospital in collaboration with the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and Harvard University.
   Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in many developing countries. It affects relatively young women and is the largest single cause of years of life lost to cancer in the developing world, the release said.
   The Human Papillona Virus accounts for a great majority of all cervical cancers worldwide. The HPV vaccine has recently been found to have the potential to prevent cervical cancer among women.
   Under the pilot programme, the HPV vaccination will be administered among 30 economically disadvantage young women.
   ‘This pilot vaccination programme to prevent cervical cancer among poor young women is a great initiative. The vaccine has only recently been introduced in some developed countries like the United States and Canada and this is perhaps for the first time it is being planned to be administered in any developing country,’ said Professor ABMF Karim, professor emeritus of Vrije University of Amsterdam, chairman of the Oncology Club and adviser to the SAARC Federation of Oncologists.
   ‘As this type of cancer is more prevalent among poor women in our country, it is quite appropriate to target this group,’ he added.
   The Harvard Medical School will conduct an impact study on the vaccination programme. The study is designed to look at the cost implications and feasibility of possible integration of the programme into routine vaccination schedule for women aged between 11 and 26 years. Additionally, issues of culture and parental attitudes will be studied.

The three-day Lalon Memorial Festival began at Chheuria under Kumarkhali in Kushtia on Saturday.
   The festival in and around the shrine of mystic Lalon Shah or Lalon Fakir by the River Kaliganga started through a formal inauguration in the evening. It will end March 24.
   Thousands of ‘bauls’ (devotees) and fans from across the country and abroad started to gather around the Akhra (shrine) of Lalan Shah.

Jatiya Party presidium member Abu Sufian, also president of Jatiya Sramik Party, died of cancer in Dhaka Friday night at the age of 65. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and one son.
   His first namaz-e-janaza was held at Hatirpool mosque. Party’s acting chairman Anisul Islam Mahmud, and senior leaders attended the janaza. He was buried in his family graveyard at Chatkhil in Noakhali after second janaza there.

Agriculture fair opens in Barisal
A three-day agriculture fair began at the Khamar Bari agricultural office in Barisal on Saturday. Molla Safiar Rahman, deputy director of Barisal divisional Agriculture Extension Department opened the fair. Agricultural equipment, seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, and posters, leaflets, books and booklets on agriculture farming, have been put on display in 13 stalls. The fair will remain open from 10:00am to 4:00pm every day.

18 injured in Khulna clash
Eighteen people were injured in a clash between fish retailers and labourers at Barobazaar in the Khulna city on Saturday. Witnesses said the clash ensured after a labourer had locked into an altercation with a fish trader over fixing a fish price at about 10:00am. The labourer left the scene and returned there within a few minutes along with 40/50 labourers, the witnesses said, adding as the labourers swooped on the traders they also retaliated. Five of the injured were admitted to Khulna Sadar Hospital.
— New Age