It was a sweltering summer day in Dhanusha, a Tarai district of Madhesh Province, on September 4. Three children dived into a pond in ward 7 of Laxminiya Rural Municipality in Dhanusha apparently to escape the heat. Unaware of the pond’s depth, the children aged between 8 and 14 drowned.

According to Sonu Kumar Sah, Inspector at the Area Police Office in Mahendranagar, eight-year-old Aayush Sah, Aaditya Kumar Sah, 10, and Sushant Sah, 14, died in the incident. The cousins had come to their maternal uncle’s house to attend the first death anniversary ritual of their maternal grandfather Mahavir Sah.

On July 1, two children went missing from their residence at Khoriya in ward 3 of Naraha Rural Municipality in Siraha district. Rahul Mandal, 7, and Aashish Mandal, 8, had ventured outside in the afternoon, but despite a thorough search by their relatives, they could not be found.

The following morning, the boys were found dead, floating in a rain-filled pit near the village. It was suspected that the children, while strolling, saw the pit created from sand and gravel extraction by an excavator, and jumped into it.

“The pit, left after excavator work, filled with rainwater, and the children may have tried to swim” said Sushil Mandal, Rahul’s father.

There was a similar incident at Bahuarwa village in ward 5 of Dhnauji Rural Municipality of Dhanusha, on July 4. There is a pond near the settlement. A pump set of a drinking water project has been installed on the edge of the pond.

Muskan Khatun, Jinat Khatun and Ajmeri Khatun—aged 11 and 12—went to the pump set to take a bath as they usually did. But the trio jumped into the pond that day. A little girl who accompanied them informed the villagers after the girls did not emerge from the pond. The locals rescued them and took them to Provincial Hospital in Janakpur where the doctors pronounced them dead.

The aforementioned are representative cases of drowning in Madhesh. Death of children by drowning is assuming crisis proportions in the province. As many as 49 people, 39 of them children, have drowned in separate incidents in Madhesh since the start of the current fiscal year on July 16. The local units and the provincial government have been criticised for not taking any concrete initiatives to control the unchecked incidents of drowning.

All 136 local units and the provincial governments have launched disaster preparedness programmes on floods and inundation, heat and cold waves, fire and storms. But they don’t have any to prevent drowning. As a result, families of drowning victims receive no relief or support.

As per data at Madhesh Province Police Office in Janakpur, 49 people drowned in the first one and half months of the current fiscal year. A total of 12 people—nine children, two men and a woman—drowned in separate incidents in Dhanusha alone in this period.

Similarly, nine people died of drowning in Mahottari, seven in Saptari, six each in Sarlahi and Rautahat and four each in Siraha and Parsa in the current fiscal year of 2024-25. One drowning-related death was reported from Bara in the same period.

“We hear about drowning deaths among children almost daily. We regularly discuss with police on ways to prevent such incidents. The provincial government has taken this issue seriously and will act accordingly,” said Pramod Jayaswal, Minister for Sports and Social Welfare in Madhesh.

The issues of children fall under Sports and Social Welfare. Talking to the Post, Jayaswal quickly admits that the provincial government has not done much to control the deaths of children by drowning. “But the government will soon launch a campaign to create awareness and control the drowning incidents,” he added.

In the last fiscal year 2023-24, a total of 185 people died due to drowning in Madhesh. Among them, according to the provincial police office, 124 were children, 47 were men and 14 were women. Saptari topped the list of districts on the count of children’s children’s death by drowning. Twenty-eight children drowned in Saptari last year while 23 and 19 children died by drowning in Dhanusha and Rautahat, respectively. Similarly, 11 each died in Bara, Mahottari and Siraha, 13 in Sarlahi and eight in Parsa.

In the fiscal year 2022-23, a total of 155 drowning-related deaths were reported in the province. Among them, 81 were children and Dhanusha topped the list with 41 deaths.

“The provincial government appears indifferent despite the high number of drowning deaths, particularly among children, in Madhesh. While guardians are also responsible for protecting their children, the local and provincial governments seem negligent and unresponsive to this critical issue,” said civil society leader Bishnu Kunwar.

He criticised local units for not doing enough to prevent these avoidable deaths. He recommended fencing off ponds, rain-filled pits and other risky water bodies to keep children from swimming in them.

Despite such a huge number of drowning incidents, local governments often shift blame. They mainly point fingers at negligent guardians and sand and gravel contractors who use excavators to dig pits, which then fill with rainwater.

“We have launched an awareness campaign using loudspeakers in our local unit. But it is not enough. All three levels of government should take responsibility for preventing drowning incidents,” said Bidhyananda Chaudhary, chairman of Chhinnamasta Rural Municipality in Saptari.

“Road offices award contracts to the construction companies, but the contractors often dig up pits recklessly and leave them uncovered. Many children drown in such pits once they fill with rainwater,” said Chaudhary, who is also a member of the National Association of Rural Municipality in Nepal.

Nine months ago, one-and-half-year son of Saroj Mandal of ward 3 of Chhinnamasta Municipality drowned in a rain-filled pit dug by a contractor while constructing Sakhada-Nyor road. The toddler fell into the pit right outside his house and died. The road project is still incomplete.