KHULNA, Dec 17 (UNB): Students of many schools in Koyra upazila of the district have no access to safe drinking water as the ring tube-wells set up for them have gone out of order.
There are 142 primary schools in Koyra with 29,000 students, while 32 secondary and three junior secondary schools with 13,000 students, according to sources at the district education office.
Although a handful of tube-wells is operative but none can drink water from those tube-wells due to high salinity. This crisis has reached a tipping point as people are demanding that measures be taken on an emergency basis.
In order to resolve the problem of drinking water and protect children from arsenic poisoning, the government installed non-arsenic ring tube-wells at the public primary schools in the area under the PEDP-2 project in the 2013-14 financial year.
Almost Tk 0.1 million was spent on setting up each of the tube-wells.
Locals alleged that the tube-wells remained out of order as they were installed in an unplanned way.
Sources at the upazila primary education office said the tube-wells installed in various primary and secondary government schools in Modinabad Model, Goriabari, Monoroma, Koyra-6, Kashir Khal Dhar, Pathor Khali, Koyra-4, Koyra-3, Botul Bazar, Khejur Bagh, Siddikia, Mothbari, Hayatkhali, Uttarochok, Hodda DM, Pollimongol, Choukuni, Kalikapur, Bhagba and Gilabari areas have become unusable.
None of these tube-wells is of no use for the students and teachers, said locals.
Mentioning that there were faults while installing the tube-wells, Sukumar Thandar, headteacher of Goriabari Government Primary School, said the tube-wells worked just for a few days after they had been set up.
"The tube-wells were not installed at a depth that was required. Although there's some water during monsoon, they're absolutely dry in other seasons. Even if you can pump out water with a lot of effort, the salinity is too high for drinking," he added.
