Three displaced families in Ward 12 of Dhulikhel Municipality, Kavrepalanchok have been languishing in Shankheshwari Basic School in Shankhupatichaur for the last one and a half months. The school resumed its classes after the Tihar festival and needs its building for the learning process to run smoothly. But the victims of disasters caused by rains in the last week of September have nowhere else to go.

“We came here and took shelter after a landslide damaged our house. We have no safer place to build a house. We also don’t have money to manage land and build shelters, says Sanu Tamang, who has taken shelter at the school with his family.

“It had rained. Our house was damaged and it was at high risk. Our family was in dire need of finding a safe shelter. The people’s representatives of the parish office asked us to stay in the school building. We know that the school needs the building now and now we have to vacate it, but we have nowhere else to go,” she lamented. According to her, her family has been desperately looking for a temporary settlement.

Twelve people from three families have stayed in the school building. The school has three buildings and the displaced families have occupied three rooms. The school administration says that the learning environment has been affected enormously with the occupancy of the classrooms.

Raju Devi Thapa, principal of Shankheshwari Basic School, said the school administration allowed four displaced families to stay in the school building as requested by the parish office. “It is our responsibility to provide shelter to displaced people during calamities. There was no problem accommodating them as the school was closed at that time. But the school reopened after Tihar, and learning and teaching have been affected as three of our rooms are occupied of displaced families, says Thapa.

Thapa reminds that local people take shelter in school buildings during natural disasters. “Many families sought shelter in the school during the 2015 earthquake. “Many families had also been living in school buildings during the earthquake. But they vacated the buildings in 10-12 days,” Thapa said, urging the parish office to manage alternatives for the displaced families and evacuate them from the school .

Kavrepalanchok is the district worst hit by the floods and landslides at the end of September that wreaked havoc in various parts of the country. A total of 78 people were killed in Kavrepalanchok alone while the disasters damaged or destroyed various infrastructures including houses, roads, community building, drinking water projects and electricity poles. Preliminary data shows that around 3,000 to 3,500 houses were completely destroyed while 6,000 to 7,000 others were partially damaged in the district.

Hundreds of displaced families took shelter in community buildings and in the homes of neighbors and relatives. Most of the victims staying in municipal school buildings have already left since the educational institutions were commissioned after the Tihar festival.

According to Debaka Dhakal, head of the District Education Development Coordination Unit in Kavrepalanchok, many affected took shelter in school buildings but they left the buildings, except for those at Shankheshwari Basic School in Banepa. “Since schools are places of education, the children should have the right to learn without any hindrance or disturbance. The local government should manage temporary shelters for the displaced families and move them from school,” said Dhakal.

The government authorities have not yet provided any support for the resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced families. The affected people, mostly from poor communities, are suffering due to the inadequate response of the concerned authorities regarding their rehabilitation.

“The government has not provided any budget for the resettlement of the displaced families. We will move the displaced families from the school as soon as the government releases the budget,” said Ashok Byaju Shrestha, mayor of Dhulikhel municipality.