Barabanki School Submerged: 232 Students Attend Classes Amidst Floods
Rising Ghaghara River waters have inundated a school in Barabanki, forcing 232 students to attend classes amidst submerged classrooms and broken amenities.
In a harrowing display of resilience and hardship, 232 students at a school in Barabanki's Durgapur village are forced to navigate rising floodwaters just to attend their daily classes. The surge in the Ghaghara River has caused water to breach the school premises, turning the learning environment into a struggle for survival against the elements.
Classrooms Turned Into Water Zones
Located in the Ramnagar tehsil, the Composite School in Durgapur is currently fighting a losing battle against the rising river levels. The flooding has not just touched the edges of the campus but has actively entered the school building, making it incredibly difficult for both students and teachers to move around.
The scale of the student body affected is significant:
- 72 students enrolled in primary classes.
- 160 students enrolled in junior classes.
The teaching staff, including Tej Singh Verma, Arun Kumar Patel, Shivakumar, Kumud Pathak, and Shikshamitras Rajit Ram and Abhishek Sharma, are working under extreme conditions to ensure education continues despite the aquatic surroundings.
A Crisis of Sanitation and Water
The crisis extends beyond just flooded hallways. The school is currently facing a severe lack of basic necessities due to the inundation:
- No Potable Water: The school's hand pump is completely non-functional, leaving children without access to clean drinking water.
- Sanitation Failure: The toilet area is entirely submerged under water.
- Staff Shortage: Hygiene maintenance has collapsed because the school's sanitary worker is currently attached to the Chief Development Officer's office, leaving the school without dedicated cleaning staff during this critical period.
Suresh Chandra Rawat, the teacher-in-charge, highlighted that this is not an isolated incident. The school suffers from annual flooding, and there has been a persistent, unmet demand to elevate the school's structure to prevent such disasters.
Infrastructure Failures and Local Impact
The flooding is not confined to the school gates. The Durgapur mini-secretariat is also submerged, and local roads have become impassable as water flows over the bitumen surfaces. Villagers have pointed fingers at a poorly designed culvert constructed by the Public Works Department, claiming its low height is a primary cause of the water accumulation on the roads.
As floodwaters reach nearby homes, residents are left with no choice but to wade through deep water to leave their villages. While Employment Officer Manoj Yadav has provided some relief by promising that the school's faulty hand pump will be repaired soon, the recurring nature of the Ghaghara River's rise continues to threaten the community's stability every year.