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Vishant Agarwala
Rebuilt after 2015 quake with India aid, School now swallowed by floods seeks help again
Trishuli Bazaar (Nepal)
Three warnings came within minutes the day it flooded - an accountant rushed in saying water was gushing in, a teacher relayed a phone call from upstream saying the area had been "swallowed", and a parent arrived on a scooter to take his daughter away.
Principal Rajendra Dawadi immediately ordered around 900 students at Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School out.
They escaped before the river wiped out the 76-year old campus.
Now, Dawadi, teachers and students agree on one thing. Classes must restart at earliest. But the school must never be rebuilt beside the river. It has to be on higher ground.
"The children - even some of our teachers and domestic staff - are scared of the river ...it is a snaking ghost," Dawadi. told TOI on Sunday. "When they look at it, they feel afraid."
Tribhuvan Trishuli, the oldest School across flood hit Rasuwa, Dhading and Nuwakot districts, had 1643 students.
The flood destroyed virtually everything it owned, including an 18-room, three storey block built with assistance from the Indian embassy after the 2015 earthquake.
All that remained of the School's property were two buses, one of these provided by India.
"Everything is washed away," Dawadi said. *After previous disasters Indian Govt. helped us. We are hopeful this time too Indian govt. will help us re-establish our school."
Close to a thousand people, including the children, had been inside the school when warnings arrived. Thirty girls were in the residential hostel. When they asked Dawadi where they could go because their homes were far away. He told them to follow him uphill.
Dawadi ordered a non teaching employee to ring the bell. The teachers began clearing the classrooms. Staff helped students suffering panic attacks. One girl was being examined by a nurse in the infirmary. All students who were inside the school survived.
Two staff members remain missing, Dawadi said.. Non teaching employee Chulrim Lama had been behind him during the evacuation. He may have turned back towards the school, possibly to close a door. Lower secondary teacher, Santos Parihar, was believed to have been in his room in the teachers' quarters.
Dawadi said India's association with the school went back to before the 2015 earthquake. The proposal for the 18 room building had already been accepted before the quake. The three storey block was subsequently constructed with the embassy's assistance.
Students described the terror of watching their school disappear.
"We were getting ready for the morning assembly when teachers started screaming for us to run up the hill. I left my backpack and books behind in the classroom. Looking back down from the ridge and seeing the river wash over our playground was terrifying. I am just glad all my friends made it safely." Class 10 student Sunita Tamang told TOI.
Class 12 student Rohan Shrestha remembered hearing the flood before seeing it. "The roar of the river sounded like a low thunder before we even saw the mud coming. The teachers moved fast getting everyone out of the hostels and to higher ground. The school is covered in mud now, We don't know when we could go back to class. However we are looking after each other in the temporary camp," he said
For Dawadi , restarting classes quickly was as much about restoring a sense of normalcy as education
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