The body of a boy who went missing after being swept away by a flash flood in a local stream in Samakhusi, Kathmandu, has been recovered on Thursday.

According to police, the body of Sajan Ale Magar, 13, was found in Bagmati river in Dakshinkali Municipality-7.

On July 23, the flash flood breached the embankments and swept away the sixth-grader.

The incident has not only troubled the police, it has also worried Samakhushi locals, who say they fear their children might be the next victims.

The incident is not an isolated case in the Kathmandu Valley, which reports deaths and destruction during the monsoon every year.

In September 2021, Ujjwal BK, a 10-year-old boy, fell into an open drain in Kapan. The boy’s dead body was found in Lalitpur after five days. Prior to that, in July 2017, Binita Phuyal, 12, had died after she fell into an open drain in Tarakeswar Municipality. The same year, another teenage schoolgirl was swept into a drainage pipe during heavy rain. Miraculously, she survived after the water current pushed her out to another end.

In the Valley, open drainage sewage and uncovered manholes are not anomalies; rather they are the norm. And with every monsoon, things get worse, as drainages inundate the roads and conceal those holes, which are potential deathtraps.