Foul play: A school in a swamp

Landlords flood primary school, dozens of children contract diseases.

VEHARI:

Four landlords in Vehari have been accused of redirecting water to flood a primary school in the area.

The standing water has turned the school campus into a swamp and several primary school children are now suffering from skin diseases.

Government Boy’s Primary School teacher Rehmat said that the stagnant water had made it nearly impossible to stay at the school. “The children still come and take classes here but the rotting smell from the pond scum is hard to bear,” he said. The school administration said that the water had collected in the area several months ago after landlords Karimullah and Gul had redirected waters in the school’s direction during last years floods.

“The students have been suffering because they often take lessons outside under a tree. There are no operational fans and it is too hot to study inside,” Rehmat said, adding “The weather and the germs from the pond have caused lots of skin diseases. Nearly half of my first grade and second grade students are sick with skin infections. Others have severe eye infections,” he said.

School administrator Nadir Hashwani said that he had called a Health Department team to inspect the site several time. “They have seen this place over four times and each time they tell us they will do something but nothing happens,” he said.

Vehari DHQ hospital attending Dr Nida Haroon said that she had personally treated dozens of children from the school.

“The leading cause for their illness is infections caused by mosquitoes and the dirty water,” she said. Dr Haroon said that she had tried to get the health department involved. “I made several calls and I even visited the school. I don’t know how the children can study there because I could barely breathe the smell was so toxic,” she said.

Parents of the students have protested and said that the district administration had failed in addressing their concerns. “My children have to trail through the swamp just to get to classes and every day they come home smelling of the pond. The smell has become impossible to escape and both my sons have developed several eye infections,” said Nabeel, 5, and Saad’s, 8, mother Mona.

Parents have appealed to the district authorities to take action against the landlords who redirected the flood waters last year. “They didn’t care about the consequences of their actions. Children are falling sick here just because they wanted to protect their fields,” they said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2011.