It befits the highest seat of learning to have the basic amenities in shape. Sanitation-wise, that is hardly the case in some public universities in the country. A report published in our paper yesterday has brought this despicable problem to the fore. There is only one toilet for 250 male students at the Arts Faculty building of Dhaka University. The situation is even direr for the female students; there is only one toilet for 857 of them. Their plight does not end here, as the seven toilets allocated for them are located on the ground and third floors of the six-storey building. It is indeed an affront to any sense of propriety that such would be the state of basic amenities for 6,000 female students, who constitute 41 percent of Arts students at DU. Most of the lavatories are not well kept, their clogged receptacles often cause overflow of sewerage water, which compounds the problem.   

Unfortunately the DU is not the only example we have at hand; students of many public universities live in such unhygienic conditions. It is high time that the authorities find a viable and lasting solution to the poor sanitary conditions. More allocation from the exchequer is urgently needed to modernise and enhance the facilities. The student bodies must play its role in assisting the university authorities in the proper maintenance of hygiene in the campus.