Even a little rain leaves campuses swamped

All it takes in Birganj upazila of Dinajpur is a little rain, a few millimetres of precipitation are sufficient, to submerge education. Two campuses, of a primary and a secondary school, are prone to inundation, especially during the monsoon months. On rainy days, the more than one thousand students of Jharbari High School and Jharbari Government Primary School have to manage as they can, waiting for waters to subside.

“Our school uniforms get wet from the stagnant water,” says class-four student Sampa Akter. “We often catch coughs and colds. Sometimes our textbooks and notebooks get wet too.”

“The stagnant water at our school is really polluted and smelly,” says Md Nasim, who studies in class ten at the high school.

It's a recurring problem. “For the last four years we have suffered from this nuisance, even with just a small amount of rain,” says Jharbari Government Primary School headmaster Zahid Hossain, who urged the local administration to take action. “It's very discouraging for the children's education.”

After The Daily Star published a report on the same problem last year, the then upazila nirbahi officer of Birganj initiated the construction of a drain to deal with the excess water around the two schools. But the new drain hasn't helped much, school authorities say.

The local chairman of Sotogram union council meanwhile says the issue will be discussed at the upcoming upazila-level monthly meeting in July.