Water for school children

A radio report from MS partner Radio Lumbini gave the children at Shree Maya Devi Primary School in Kabilvastu district water to drink at school. A businessman heard about the problem.

For years the children at Shree Maya Devi Primary School in Manauri, ward no. 7 in Lumbini Adarrha VDC had to get through the school day without having water to drink. There was no water pump at the school.

“It was a terrible problem for the school. There is scarcity of water in this area and we had to walk one kilometre to the nearest village to get water for the school,” recalls Lalmun Nisha, member of the School Management Committee.

“The students fled from school during classes because they were thirsty. They went to the village for water and did not come back. It created a very bad study environment at the school. The lack of water was used as an excuse to skip classes,” tells head teacher Matrika Prasad Maurya.

Asking the students to bring water to school themselves did not do any help. The students did not bring enough and the problem was not solved. The school had to turn elsewhere to get water.

No help from authorities

For some time the school had tried to make the DDC to acknowledge the water problem and give money for digging a well and a water pump but the efforts were fruitless. Despite six trips to the DDC with applications and talking to officials nothing happened.

“DDC only gave assurances and said that next time they might be able to help us or they sent us to the Central Education Office or the VDC saying that they did not have any money but we did not get any help,” says Tripurani Brai, deputy head teacher.

“Heartily the DDC were not ready to help us. They were just flipping their tongue and lips and only wanted to transfer the problem to other offices,” he continues.

The missing secretary

Each year money is allocated for the VDC and the members of the staff at the school is sure that if things had functioned at VDC level they would have been able to get financial help by providing arguments at the annual meeting where all wards in the VDC is gathered. But the VDC is closed and the current secretary has never been seen at the community. “We simply have not been able to find him,” tell the villagers.

“Even though there is no elected member in the VDC money is still distributed and we should be able to get our share of that money but when we cannot find the appointed secretary we cannot get any money. The secretary uses the money for his own purposes,” claim the villages.

The staff at the school and the villagers has tried solving the problem themselves trying to come up with solutions. Many meetings were held with intense discussions but all the time the issue about the lack of financial means in the community was a hinder for the school to solve the problem.

“Without money we could not find a solution. We are poor people and we had to get help. We thought of who to contact, how to ask for donations or to go through NGOs or iNGOs but then a surprising solution came along that we had never imagined,” tells Tripurani Brai.

Community reporter from Radio Lumbini, Birendra Kumar Mishra. Photo by Malene Lærke

Radio report gave donation

The water problem at the school got community reporter from Radio Lumbini, Birendra Kumar Mishra’s attention.

“I got to know about this problem, visited the school and asked many questions. I made a radio report where I explained about the water problem and told about the financial problems involved for the school,” tells Birendra Kumar Mishra.

The news was sent in the programme Community Activities at Radio Lumbini and soon the phone rang at the community reporter’s office. The person in the other end of the line was Bodhraj Udaya who is the chairperson of Lumbini’s Religious Committee. He wanted to give money for a water pump for the school.

“He wanted badly to help this school because he believed this school had a serious problem,” tells Matrika Prasad Maurya who met the donor in Butwal.

Bodhraj Udaya donated the water pump, transportation and 2800 rupees for the work that needed to be done to dig the well and install the water pump. A week after the radio report had been broadcasted the pump was installed and the students could quench their thirst during school hours.

“Today the students have no excuse to flee from school, they attend regularly and they study well. This has changed the study environment completely,” says Matrika Prasad Maurya.

Power of media

The teachers at the school and the villagers had fought and thought hard to come up with a solution to the water problem at the school and they were surprised to see how fast things moved when the radio report was broadcasted.

“We were really surprised. We had taxed our brains and talked about solutions but because of one persons radio report a solution came. It is really miraculous. It was like a dream,” says Matrika Prasad Maurya.

“If we have problems we can submit an application to the DDC but the DDC just tear it apart but no one can tear apart a report there is being broadcasted. People hear about it and no one can stop it and hide it like the DDC can hide an application. It reaches directly and therefore it is so powerful,” says Abdul Movin Khan, chairperson of Lumbini listener club.

Arsenic in other wells

Today a new problem has arisen for the school. Neighbouring wells has been tested for arsenic in the water. The tests came out positive and now the teachers’ are worrying that the water from the well at the school might be contaminated. They have begun looking for money so the water can be tested. No one in the village has so far shown symptoms of arsenic poisoning in the six months water has been drunk from the well.