The mighty Brahmaputra has not only wiped out total 228 number of schools since 2012 but nearly 1130 schools has also been adversely effected due to massive soil erosion till last month alone in Lower Assam’s Dhubri district.
In a reply to a Right To Information (RTI) by the Office of the District Elementary Education Officer (DEEO), Dhubri revealed that the affect of soil erosion has been highest during the current year.
As per the data furnished to the RTI applicant and advocate Irfan Ullah Khandakar by the District Project Engineer, SSA, Dhubri revealed that maximum 64 numbers of schools were washed away in the year 2014 followed by 44 in 2015, 34 in 2016, 33 in 2017, while 19 schools were washed away in 2012, 10 in 2018 and again in 2019,a total 24 schools has so far been washed away in district.
Although no data for the year 2013 was recorded.
As regards to total numbers of school that has been affected due to soil erosion, the department said that around 1,130 schools were affected by severe soil erosion till last months.
It was reported that the department had been maintaining records since 2012, when 271 schools were affected by such natural disaster, while in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, as many as 80, 223, 54, 60 and 13 schools respectively were affected due to massive soil erosion.
This year, maximum of 429 numbers of schools were affected by erosion in the district.
The above data is only pertaining to the state elementary schools.
There are many more private and non-provincialized schools in district, besides a few high schools which have also been affected by flood-induced soil erosion, but have gone unreported.