Tots at 200 schools suffer for want of tubewells
Students of Mohalchhara Government High School in Khagrachhari Sadar upazila take a risky walk across the adjoining main road to collect drinking water as there is no tube well on the school premises.Photo: STAR
Lack of tubewells for potable water in over 200 primary schools out of 433 in the district is causing immense sufferings to hundreds of kids and staffs. The students, teachers and other staffs of these government institutions have to take pains every school day to walk to adjacent areas in search of water. District Primary Education Officer sources said that apart from 105 primary schools without any tubewells, severe water crisis prevails in another 114 as the existing tubewells at those schools are out of order for long. We have sent a list of all the schools that lack water facility to the district public health office recently, said an official, adding that they had also requested the executive engineer for prompt steps to resolve the crisis. Students of the Mohalchhara Government Primary School under Sadar upazila, established in 1961, said that they often have to risk their lives as they cross the main road in search of a tubewell for potable water. Kamita Chakma of grade-5 of the school said even for minor washing they have to cross the busy road. "The school toilets are almost unusable due to lack of water and we suffer most during school hours," Usa Marma of grade-4 at the same school told this correspondent. Shipan Akter, teacher of the school, echoed the children saying that teachers and other staffs were also equally suffering due to the water crisis. Headmistress of the school Mousumi Tripura said that water crisis is a long-standing problem at the school. "I have informed the authorities concerned but they seem too undifferent to the matter. I asked them to install a tubewell and mitigate the suffering," Tripura said. Barapara Government Primary School, established in 1962 under Sadar upazila, is also facing similar problems. Khagasshar Tripura, headmaster of the school, said that the sanitation problem at the school due to lack of water was too acute. "Sometimes the children are forced to drink unhygienic surface water from nearby sources for which they often suffer from water-borne diseases," he said. "I wrote to the authorities concerned several times but in return we got nothing but hollow promises," he added. Contacted, the executive engineer at Khagrachhari public health office told this correspondent that a project was being taken up to address the problem. "We shall soon start repair and installation of tubewells in these primary schools," he said.
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