Janakpurdham, August 20
A series of tragic incidents across Madhesh Province has highlighted the growing danger of children drowning in water-filled pits left behind by haphazard construction, roadworks, and illegal sand and gravel extraction.
Last Tuesday, two brothers from Parsa lost their lives while playing near their home. Eight-year-old Ansh and his four-year-old brother Ayans, sons of Manoj Kathayat of Thori-2, Hanumannagar, went to the nearby Dhedhu stream, around 150 meters from their house. The children entered a water pit formed after sand was extracted by a dozer. Moments later, locals found them floating. They were rushed to a nearby hospital in Thori, but doctors declared them dead on arrival.
“Locals had earlier extracted sand from the stream, which left behind a pit that filled with rainwater. The children drowned there. They were already dead when taken to hospital,” said Thori-2 Ward Chair Amrit Krishna Sapkota.
Similar incidents have been reported in other districts. On May 19, two boys drowned in a five-foot-deep pit left during the construction of an agricultural road in Dhanusha’s Kamala Municipality-2. The victims, Ritik Sah, 7, and his cousin Ritish Sah, 5, had gone out to play before slipping into the water. The road was being built under a contract worth Rs 1 million, awarded to Jay Baba Nursing Construction. Locals allege the contractor dug deeper than agreed, creating the fatal pit, but no action was taken.
On July 2, 11-year-old Karina Kumari Mandal of Gaushala Municipality-10, Mahottari, drowned in a water-filled pit at the Maraha riverbank. She and a friend had gone to bathe in a hole dug by crusher operators illegally extracting sand and gravel. Karina was pulled out and rushed towards Bardibas for treatment but died on the way.
Earlier, on July 1, two boys drowned in a gravel-extraction pit in Siraha’s Naraha-3. Six-year-old Rahul Mandal and his eight-year-old cousin Ashish Mandal drowned while bathing in the deep pit.
These tragedies represent only a fraction of a wider crisis. According to Madhesh Province Police, 272 people drowned in the province in the fiscal year 2081/82 BS, of whom 170 were children under the age of 14. Rautahat reported the highest number with 33 child deaths, followed by Dhanusha (30), Mahottari (28), Saptari (23), Sarlahi (21), Siraha (20), Parsa (10), and Bara (5).
The figures mark a sharp rise from the previous year, when 192 people drowned, including 110 children. In 2079/80 BS, 124 drowning deaths were recorded, with 82 children among them, showing a steady increase each year.
Police officials say unregulated fish ponds, village washing ponds, pits left by construction, and illegal sand and gravel mining sites are the main causes. “Soil is extracted from municipal or private land, but there is no management plan. Pits remain open for years, fill with rainwater, and become death traps for children,” said DIG Uma Prasad Chaturvedi, chief of Madhesh Province Police.
Chaturvedi stressed that local governments and district coordination committees have a key role in monitoring excavation works and enforcing safety. “The responsibility for contracts, extraction limits, and monitoring lies with municipalities. But without enforcement, contractors leave pits open,” he said.
Despite repeated tragedies, cases are rarely pursued legally. Most are settled informally with financial compensation, locals claim. Political analyst Tula Narayan Sah argues the deaths reflect systemic negligence. “There is no law holding contractors or pond owners accountable when children drown. Development projects should refill pits, but they don’t. Commercial ponds lack fencing. Children die, yet no one is punished,” Sah said.
He added the problem is class-based. “Most victims are from poor families in rural areas. Wealthier families supervise their children, but poor parents leave them unattended while working. The state remains indifferent because it is the children of the poor who are dying,” he said.
The issue has not been raised in the Madhesh Provincial Assembly or in Parliament. Rupa Yadav, chair of the Provincial Committee on Women and Children, admitted that her committee has not yet discussed it. “This has not been tabled in the committee, nor has it been debated,” she said, but pledged to raise the issue in upcoming meetings.
Experts and police stress that preventive measures are urgent, including laws to hold contractors and pond owners accountable, monitoring of excavation works, and parental vigilance. “If negligence causes a child’s death, legal action must follow. Otherwise, these preventable tragedies will only rise,” DIG Chaturvedi said.
