That's a lot of sewage
From Mr Robert Butterworth
Sir: I enjoyed Mark Steyn's article ('Others can do the caring', 21 June). There can be no doubt that some of the NGOs operating in disaster situations at times greatly exaggerate their case: this is only to be expected in the cause of self-preservation for both their staff and their cash flow. Your writer has exposed an interesting vein. However, I believe that more attention might have been paid to the substance of Mr Will Day of Care International's claim. Five hundred thousand tonnes a day is an awful lot of raw sewage: 500 million kgs, displacing half a million cubic feet of seawater. The population of Baghdad is taken to be 4,500,000, so that Care appears to be suggesting that every man, woman and child is producing 111 kgs of faecal matter per day. Seventeen and a half stone each? Much more than their average body weight? This is hard to believe.
Possibly someone on Care's statistical team is innumerate, or perhaps their people are simply lacking in common sense. However, to look on the positive side, if their figures are correct, there should be no need to look any further for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction — they must be right there on the banks of the Tigris, disguised as the good burghers of Baghdad.
Robert Butterworth Lamphey, Pembrokeshire
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