The District Education Office (DEO) led the initiative to install the alarm system which will allow the inflow of early warning messages along with updated status on dammed lake.

“As a part of the siren system, each school has been provided with a mega telephone set and a siren installed with a microphone system. The students and teachers have been taught how to identify the alarms,” said Krishna Acharya of Ban Sanghu Secondary School. The school lost 31 of its students in the August 2 landslide.

The alarm system installation was assisted by Save the Children. Hemanta Dangol of Save the Children said with the siren-networking system in place, the students and teachers will not have to fear about any future disasters while at school.

A student and a teacher from each of the nine schools will be nominated focal persons for their schools and they will coordinate the information sharing mechanism.

The DEO, with the help of various organisations, decided to work on siren-networking after the parents stopped sending their children to school for fear of another landslide.

According to the DEO, schools located along the Sunkoshi river, starting from Damsite to Sukute, are most vulnerable to flooding because of the artificial lake caused by the landslide.

Chief District Officer Gopal Parajuli said the water level in the dammed lake is decreasing and they have taken the necessary measures to protect the people.

He said security personnel are working to drain the lake and the Department of Road is constructing diversion route to resume transportation.

Boy traumatised after losing all family members

Thirteen-year-old Bam Bahadur Koirala, who lost his parents and sister in the August 4 landslide at Syabun VDC-3 in Sankhuwasabha, is suffering from a deep emotional trauma, according to the boy’s relatives.

The teenager is having difficulty coping with the tragedy, said Pushpa Koirala, the boy’s uncle. “It has been 19 days since the incident and he has yet to come to terms with the loss of his family. He mumbles in his dreams, says he sees his dead family members,” he said.

Bam Bahadur, who is currently under the care of his neighbours, had gone to his friend’s house for a sleepover on the night the landslide buried his house, killing his father Kritiman, mother Devimaya, and sister Tulala. 

“The villagers knew that my family had died in the landslide the same night, but they did not tell me until the next morning,” the boy lamented. “When I reached home the next morning, I had not thought that my family would be gone forever.”

He said that he has been left helpless and without anyone to support him after the incident. Bam Bahadur is a fifth grader at local Bindabasini Primary School.