A school playground is a place of recreation and relaxation for students, but the playground of Shahzadpur High School in Brahmanbaria's Sarail upazila has turned into a waterbody, thanks to the authorities’ negligence.
The playground of the school has remained waterlogged for the last two months as rainwater could not be drained out.
If anyone sees the school ground for the first time, he/she can easily mistake it for a pond.
Due to the closure of educational institutions in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the students have not gone to the school for more than a year.
When teachers and guardians come to the school for work, submission of assignments and other purposes, they have to wade through the water to reach the school premises.
The school ground has remained waterlogged for the past two months as no one has taken the initiative to solve the problem.
Teachers and guardians fear that if the situation continues for a longer period, students will suffer a lot after the reopening of the educational institutions.
They demanded effective measures to remove water from the playground of the school immediately but have yet to get any response from the authorities.
Abinash Chandra Deb, headmaster of Shahzadpur High School, said: “The waterlogging problem has been created due to landfilling in the adjacent areas.”
“We informed the Sarail upazila parishad chairman, UNO, upazila secondary education officer and Shahzadpur UP chairman about the issue 20-22 days ago and the UNO asked the local UP chairman to look into the matter. But no visible measures have been taken yet,” he added.
He urged the government to take effective measures to address the school’s waterlogging problem.
Zaharlal Bhowmik, chairman of the school managing committee, said: “The stagnation of water has been created due to poor drainage system as there are cluster villages around the school building.”
Rafiqul Islam Khokon, chairman of Shahzadpur union, said: “I have visited the place and discussed the matter with the authorities concerned. A report has been sent to the UNO and I hope work will begin soon to drain out the water.”