The cruel math of the aftermath of Nepal’s flood

Eight-year-old Buchana Tamang was in her Grade 3 class at Nilkantha Secondary School in Rasuwa. School had just started that morning, when there was a gigantic roar and a pressure blast of cold air preceding a wall of brown water, mud and debris that came crashing down the Bhote Kosi.

Being at school saved her life. But the flood swept away her parents, Pasang and Daisy, along with their home which was below the school. Orphaned, Buchana has nowhere to go, and she is now under her school’s care.

Sanjay Magar was at his Mahendra Secondary School in Nuwakot, where he stayed for two days before being airlifted by rescuers to a holding centre in nearby Bidur.

“The flood swept away our house, farm, the bridge to our school,” says the 12-year-old. “I have no idea where I will go to school now.”

Seventeen-year-old Sabina Tamang now finds herself the sole guardian to two siblings Rabin and Govinda after the flood took away their parents Nima and Rikchi. Father and mother are gone, their school was swept away, so the responsibility of their uncertain future falls on Sabina’s shoulders. 

Mukesh Tamang, 11, had lost both his parents three years ago, and this time his two older siblings, Muskan and Roshni, were taken away by the debris flow. Now, he has neither home nor family.

Ambika Majhi from Bhaise village is sheltering at a nearby school with her three sons. Across the Trisuli, the children’s school was damaged and the flood took away her home and livelihood.

“How will I send my sons to school now? How will I put a roof over their heads?” she asks.

LOSS AND HEARTBREAK

Up and down 80km stretch of the Trisuli from the China border right down to Bidur, there are stories of loss and heartbreak behind every one of the 7,000 killed or unaccounted for. The flood has put the care and education of over 14,000 children at risk. A government survey showed that at least 102 children lost both parents, many more lost one, and hundreds are still separated from families.

Many schools across Nuwakot and Rasuwa, the hardest-hit districts, have now been swept away or buried under the debris-strewn riverbed. In other schools that remain physically intact, many students and staff are still missing, presumed dead. Many others have been permanently displaced. 

Timure in Rasuwa, 7km from the China border, was almost completely obliterated by the flood. Among the schools swept away is Rastriya Adharbhut School. Of the school’s 35 students, 25 are missing and six of the teachers are also missing (box, below).

In Rasuwa, at least 100 out of the 508 students and three staff members from Nilkantha Secondary School are still unaccounted for after the flood. Another 87 students have their lost guardians, among whom 56 lost both parents. The school has now become a shelter for many of its own students who have lost everything and everyone. 

“Our hostel can accommodate 100 students, but we now need additional residential capacity for at least 150 students and 30 staff who survived,” says Nilkantha principal Madhav Lamichhane.

In Bidur Municipality, seven teachers and 233 students from various schools are still missing more than a month after the flood. Hope has faded for them to be ever found. The wall of mud damaged three public and two private schools, one college, the Islamia Quarania Madrasa, and an Extended Education Training Unit operated by the provincial government. The flood also swept away a hostel for blind and visually impaired students (pictured above).