JANAKPUR, July 14: At least 261 children have died from drowning in Madhesh Province over the past two fiscal years, with most of the fatalities occurring in ponds, pits and canals near their homes, according to Madhesh Province Police.
The latest tragedies occurred on Sunday, when five children lost their lives in separate drowning incidents in Siraha and Saptari districts.
Worth of stories
In Siraha's Golbazar Municipality 7, three siblings from the same family drowned in a water-filled pit at a livestock market. The victims have been identified as 12-year-old Sabnam Khatun, 10-year-old Rubina Khatun and 8-year-old Saful Sheikh, children of Awas Sheikh, originally from Jhingharwa in Rautahat, who are currently living in Choharwa, Golbazar.
According to Ward Chair Harisharan Thakur, the children had gone to the livestock market to play and entered a pit dug to provide drinking water for animals. They drowned while bathing in the water.
Thakur said the pit was not newly excavated but had existed for years and had also been used to extract soil for road construction. He added that the children's mother earns a living by collecting scrap materials while living in Choharwa with her children.
In a separate incident on Sunday evening, 10-year-old Pankaj Pramani, son of Ravindra Pramani of Kanchanpur Municipality 8 in Saptari, drowned while swimming in a canal with friends. A search and rescue team led by Armed Police Force Inspector Mahesh Kumar Karki recovered the boy's body about 75 meters downstream from where he had gone missing.
Nine months ago, two young cousins from the same family also drowned in Dhanusha after falling into a pit dug for the construction of an agricultural road in Kamala Municipality 2. The victims were seven-year-old Riti Sah and five-year-old Ritish Sah.
Police data show that 111 children, including 57 boys and 54 girls, have drowned in Madhesh Province during the current fiscal year alone. In the previous fiscal year, 150 children, including 96 boys and 54 girls, lost their lives in similar incidents.
District wise, Dhanusha recorded the highest number of child drowning deaths this fiscal year with 30, followed by Mahottari with 29, Siraha with 21, Sarlahi with 19, Rautahat with 18, Saptari with 16, Parsa with 10 and Bara with 7.
Deputy Inspector General Om Prasad Adhikari of Madhesh Province Police said most victims drowned in water filled pits and ponds located near their homes. He blamed the lack of safety measures around pits dug for agricultural roads and other construction projects for increasing the risk of such accidents.
"During the monsoon, water collects in open pits everywhere. Parents must closely monitor their children during this period," Adhikari said, adding that police have been conducting public awareness campaigns through community policing programs.
Local governments have been constructing agricultural roads to improve farmers' access to their fields. However, instead of transporting soil from elsewhere, contractors often dig it from adjacent land, leaving behind deep pits that fill with rainwater and pose a serious danger to children.
