Perhaps, the most bizarre sight to behold while visiting Dewathang Primary School in Samdrup Jongkhar would be the endless number of jerry cans lined outside each classroom. These jerry cans contain water, each student painstakingly fetches from home every day.
The school has had a long history of water problem, perhaps as old as the school itself. The school was built in 1962.
And without water, maintaining hygiene is almost next to impossible.
The School Health-in-charge, Tshering Dolkar, said the Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative has promised to help them harvest rain water. “But that is yet to happen.” The Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative office in Dewathang said it will install structures that will help trap rainwater. But the rainwater harvesting will help ease the problem only during monsoon season.
Yet another problem, Tshering Dolkar, said is the high number of students the school has also makes it difficult to maintain hygiene. “If one gets infected, the disease spreads very fast.” In August, 144 students had wound infection. Tshering Dolkar said the school’s health department does what it can. “But without water it is really hard.”
The school’s principal, Ngawang Thinley, said the little water the school gets is from Jigme Namgyel Polytechnic institute. “We get water from there thrice a week. But they too have water shortage. We are grateful to them for sparing us some water despite them facing similar problem.”
