An eight-year-old boy drowned on Saturday around 4 pm, after he apparently fell into a reservoir close to a sand yard where he had been playing. The reservoir is estimated to be approximately 12 feet deep.
Dead is Emmanuel Welch of Lot 19 Sheet Anchor Village, East Canje, Berbice.
Welch’s foster mother Nadira Toolsie told Stabroek News that on Saturday when she returned from work around 4 pm she did not see her son. The woman, who is a domestic worker, said she started to search for him. Toolsie said Welch would normally go to his foster sister’s home, across the road.
She said she sent one of her granddaughters to collect him, but she came and said he was not there.
“I sent my grandson to look for he and he left and go back at the sand pit and whilst going there, another little boy run come and told me that he [Emmanuel] fall in a tank,” she said in a shaking voice.
Toolsie said she rushed to the scene, where her nephew and a few of his friends helped to get Emmanuel out of the reservoir.
Toolsie said Emmanuel’s playmates told her that he was playing with them at the sand yard but they did not know when he disappeared.
However, she indicated that the children also told her that a boy called ‘Bruck up’ had sent Emmanuel to pick up his clothes for him and he was the last person seen with Emmanuel. Reports said ‘Bruck up’ could not be located.
Toolsie said Emmanuel “don’t normally go down there; this is the first time me hear he go there.”
The sand yard, where the reservoir is located is in a compound belonging to a company that sells sand.
The woman said she had cared for Emmanuel since he was a year old. Emmanuel was described as a popular boy in the village who was always fun to be around. He was a very jovial and loving child. She added too that the child was very attached to her.
Stabroek News understands Emmanuel’s biological mother died two years ago and his father is nowhere to be found.
Police investigations are continuing. The child is expected to be laid to rest on Wednesday.
