Three People from One Family Die Due to Cholera in Saptari

In Saptari’s Chhinnamasta-5, Sada Tole a small, poor settlement three members of the same family have died after suffering from diarrhea and cholera.

Around 80 people, including local representatives, have fallen sick, and five are in serious condition in the hospital. The area has no toilets, and health workers have not yet been able to test everyone’s stool samples.

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Buchan Sada, 33, lost three family members to diarrhea within eight days. People in the tole have no toilets, so they go to nearby ponds and fields for defecation. Women often wake up early in the morning to find privacy, and children relieve themselves around their houses.

Most men in the community work as daily laborers in Punjab and Mumbai, India, to support their families. Because of poverty, they cannot afford to build toilets, says 50-year-old Ghuran Sada.

Dirty Water and Poor Sanitation

There are three hand pumps in the tole, but one is still under floodwater, and the other two are covered in mud. People use this same water for drinking, bathing, washing clothes, and cleaning dishes. The narrow paths are muddy, making it hard to walk around.

After three people died from diarrhea, the local government distributed soap, nail cutters, and sanitizer last Friday but proper cleaning has still not been done. Garbage piles are everywhere, giving off a bad smell. Even though it hasn’t rained for two days, many yards still look like paddy fields.

Difficult Access to Health Services

The nearest health post, Kochabakhari (Lokharam), is about one kilometer away and runs a birthing center. However, because the road is muddy, ambulances cannot reach the area. People even struggle to walk there.

Health post chief Alok Ranjan Jha said, “We aim to help 18 mothers give birth each year, but in the past three months, only two have come because ambulances can’t reach us.”

Poor School Condition

The local Shree Dalit National Primary School, built in 2004 through community donations, is also in bad shape. The Madhesh provincial government began building a new two-room school building, but it remains unfinished.

About 134 children from the Sada community study up to grade 4 there. The school has no toilet or clean water, and the old hand pump is muddy. Out of five staff positions, only four teachers are working.

Health and Cholera Testing

Although 80 people have diarrhea, only 9 have been tested, and 4 tested positive for cholera, said Dipendra Prasad Yadav, the local health officer. “We’ve started water and sanitation checks, but some people refuse to give stool samples,” he added.

Among those hospitalized are ward member Aruhuliya Devi Sada (65), Suraj Sada’s 3-year-old son Manish, Shivkumar Sada’s 7-year-old son Aman, and Subodh Sada’s 30-year-old wife Rekha Devi. All are admitted to Gajendra Narayan Singh Hospital in Rajbiraj and are now in stable condition.

Local Government Response

Rural Municipality Chair Bidyanand Chaudhary said most people in the area are economically and socially backward, so not everyone has toilets. “The local budget is not enough to build toilets for all, but we are planning to work with donor agencies,” he said.

The diarrhea outbreak began on October 19 (Kartik 2). Within days, Buchan Sada’s one-year-old son Sanjeev (Oct 22), father Laxman (Nov 1), and 4-year-old daughter Raghini (Nov 4) all died.