Simple solution

Sir. We have read news of diarrhoea epidemic and polluted water use in Bangladesh in various newspapers. The flood affected people are regularly using dangerously polluted flood water and contracting diarrhoea and other Infcc-tous diseases. Therefore, we are interested to give a simple solution to prevent such infections from polluted water.

Bleaching powder is one of the effective disinfectant of polluted water. Concentrated solution of bleaching powder (for example. 100 grams of bleaching powder dissolved in one litre of water) can be used for household treatment of water by adding half tea-spoonful (2-4 mllll-litres) -bleaching power solution into 10 to 15 litres of contaminated water and allow 15-30 mln contact time to get safe water for drinking and all other household purposes.

Prepared concentrated solution of bleaching powder (stock solution) can be kept several months In closed glass bottles (without losing potency significantly) for regular use. One litre stock solution (100 grams bleaching powder) can be used to treat about 3-5 thousands litres of contaminated water.

Bleaching powder is cheap and locally available. Good quality bleaching powder should be used. Use clean solution of bleaching powder from the bottle (don't shake). Treated water should have some small of chlorine. Public health workers. NGOs and other social organisations can make and distribute such solution and teach the general people.

This is a simple and safe solution.

Alam M. Jahangir & Khurshtda Begum Japan.

Repairing of Dhaka-Chittagong Road

Sir. The Dhaka-Chittagong road is the main road which matters in our economy. It has been closed for last one month and will remain closed for next one month. Repairing this road is essential to revive countries economic activities.

It is possible to repair road even during flood. Two sides of the road are to be fenched with bamboos and tin sheets and then gravels and coarse sand mixed to be filled on submerged road. As boats are accessible from all side, so filling of gravel

and sand mixture can be done employing a hundred boats only and within a very short time, only 30 km submerged road can be made motorable with a approximate budget of 150 crore taka only.

3 0 km

30,000mx3.29ft/m= 1.00,000 ft long x 60 ft wide x 5 ft high = 3.00,00,000 eft to filled up with a mixture of gravels and sand @ Tk. 50 / eft = Tk 150, 00.00.000/= Taka One hundred eighty crore only.

Engr A K Sarker Dhaka

Blair and Clinton

Sir, We are bewildered and fail to understand as to why the British Prime Minister Tony Blair did not make any retaliatory measure against the terrorist IRA Republican Group for Omagh bomb attack in Northern Ireland but why did the US President Bill Clinton make cruise missile attacks on the suspected terrorist spots of Osama bin Laden in Sudan and Afghanistan?

Both the USA and the UK are close allies and friends. Does not the peculiar action of Bill Clinton smell rat?

Who would deny the fact that

Bill Clinton has tried to his own skin and diverted the attention of the people all over the world from his Infamous and Inappropriate sexual relationship witn Monika Lewinsky to terrorist Saudi Arabian billionaire Osama bin Laden?

We are not only outraged by the conduct, trickery and the macabre action of Bill Clinton but we are also greatly concerned with the image, honour and sanctity of the high and prestigious office of the President of the United States of America.

The US is a great democratic country and a colossal military power but truth is never suppressed and hidden to there. We are waiting for the day when the people of America would prove accurately and confirm if US arms might Is right or Monika Lewinsky sex scandal Is true.

O. H. Kabir

6, Hare Si reel.

Wart. Dhaka-1203

SM Hall's name-plate

Sir. There is no name-plate of Salimullah Hall, an old hall of Dhaka University. It is a matter of great regret for the students of this hall.

We brought it to the notice of the authority but to no effect. It

seems to us that the authority has kept our proposal in the cold storage to be more modified.

But we don't want them to act like that — please turn it into reality. We the students of this hall want to inscribe a decent name-plate at the main entrance.

Shahtdul Islam SM Hall. DU

Credibility of propaganda and

supine BTV

Sir. It is really disgusting and highly irritating to watch the way the electronic media of the government of the Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh is being muzzled and misused for onesided propaganda, blacking out the other multi-sectors of the society. There are many types of power blackouts!

The propaganda techniques used are amateurish and of poor standard. Not to cause irritation Is part of the propaganda technique. There are standard textbooks on the subject and plenty of bibliography, but perhaps unknown to the policymakers. who appear to be very keen to make hay while the sun shines (quite all right, so long

the motivation is acceptable). The administration is run on the mood of the moment. Why the media cannot be neutral? It means freedom.

Most of the air time is devoted to what is happening in the public sector, and how the people’s representatives in power were passing their time. Perhaps there is a TV camera team permanently attached to each Hon Minister, just like Private Secretaries are on shift duty round the clock.

It is a mystery how the professionals in the BTV News Department could be a party to such supine subservience, forgetting professional code, pride practice, and credibility. What to broadcast, and how to present a programme or bulletin should be left to the professionals. without interference from other professionals. Policy directives should be in public. not party or personal interest. What is Ironical is that all the time the leaders (in and out of power, and the Intellectuals) sermonise about democracy and freedom of the media ad nauseam. Bangladesh is full of Platonic politicians. Only our floods are real. If not distorted by BTV.

A. Zabr Dhaka.