A 40-year-old employee of the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary (MMA) scheme drowned in the Berbice River around 9.30 am yesterday while repairing a sluice door at D’Edward Village, West Coast Berbice; his body was fished out almost two hours later.
Reports are that Berkley Hollingsworth of Golden Grove Village was working on the three-door sluice, located close to the Berbice River Bridge along with a few other employees when he met his demise.
He was reportedly sitting on a boat when it hit against a concrete wall, causing him to lose his balance and topple overboard.
Eyewitnesses told Stabroek News that his colleagues tried to grab him but the rough waters pulled him under the middle door, into the river.
Fishermen assisted the workers to launch a search immediately and also supplied them with fishing hooks.
This newspaper was told that the men spent almost two hours throwing the hooks into the “koker pit” at different points. They finally succeeded in hooking a part of Hollingsworth’s pants and pulling him up.
The man’s reputed wife, Andrea Archibald told Stabroek News that her husband could not swim. She said she was told that Hollingsworth was alone in the boat when it capsized and that he drowned even though he was wearing a lifejacket.
However, she said she doubted that he was wearing a lifejacket as if he were he would have been rescued alive.
Archibald said sadly that her husband only started working with MMA five months ago as a vehicle serviceman.
She said he was not getting “everyday work” and accepted an offer just over one month ago to work on the sluice.
She said during last week Hollingsworth told her that he “nearly drown and my mother [who lives nearby] tell him not to work there anymore”, but he continued because she was not working at the time.
The woman, who is now employed as a labourer with farmers at Bush Lot, was at work when she received a call from her sister just after 10:00 am to “come home now, now!”
She questioned whether something was wrong at home but her sister related that her mother got a phone call that “Berkley drown.” She said she did not believe her sister and as she hurried home, she dialled her husband’s cell phone three times but got no response.
Hours later, she got a call that his body was found and went to the hospital mortuary, where she finally faced the truth.
In tears she recalled what a good man he was. “If ah said Berkley ah want a bucket of water to bathe he would bring it for me. If ah tell he Berkley feed the chickens he would go,” she said.
Shaking her head, she kept repeating, “I can’t believe it; ah still can’t believe it…”
Hollingsworth also leaves to mourn his seven-year-old son Brandon, his father and siblings; his mother died less than two months ago.
