HETAUDA, Nov 16 - Over two-dozen students here in Bhumeshwor primary school of Dhiyal VDC-3 fell sick after consuming porridge (haluwa) made of "nutrient" flour that the school received under Food for Education Project, run by the World Food Program.
Eight of them recovered only after treatment at a local health post, according to Uttam Lal Gole, Principal of the school.
Chandra Lal Gurung, Assistant Health Worker (AHW) of the post, informed that the flour used to
prepare the porridge was of low quality but that it had turned poisonous as it was used long past its expiry date.
The students felt nausea, headache and abdominal pain half-an-hour after they ate the food item, Gole said. The flour was distributed from the Chhatiwan center run by the project.
Apart from Bhumeshwor primary, several other schools from Chhatiwan and Hatiya areas in the district have complained about the flour provided by the project.
"Immediately after we received such complaints, we have instructed the schools not to use the flour," said Bodh Raj Kaini, chief of the project in Hetauda.
The projects officials suspect that 300 metric tons of the flour that was sent directly from the United States was of low quality. Its sample has been sent to Kathmandu for test, Kaini said. The Nepal office of the WFP has also issued a circulation instructing not to use the flour, officials said.
The Kathmandu Post
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