Media: Nearly 600 schoolchildren missing in Nepal disaster zone
About 600 schoolchildren from two districts in northern Nepal — Rasuwa and Nuwakot, the areas hardest hit by a powerful landslide and devastating flooding — are listed as missing.
This was reported by The Kathmandu Post newspaper, citing sources.
As a result of the natural disaster on the morning of August 26, 12 schools there were completely destroyed, and another 10 educational institutions were seriously damaged. The list of the missing includes 22 teachers and staff members of these schools.
According to Surya Bahadur Khatri, head of the education development and coordination unit of Nuwakot, the authorities are doing everything possible to search for them, but the efforts are hampered, among other things, by communication problems.
As reported by Nawaraj Sapkota, school inspector of the education department of Bidur Municipality, "the situation on the ground is extremely alarming."
"In some cases we have found surviving parents who cannot find their children, in other cases surviving students are searching for missing parents," he said.
As the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported earlier, at least 22,000 children in Nepal are suffering from a shortage of clean drinking water. They also urgently need to be provided with proper sanitation and hygiene.
Water supply systems and sanitation infrastructure facilities in the Himalayan country have been damaged or destroyed.
