A couple died minutes apart on Thursday night at Hyde Park, Timehri, East Bank Demerara, where a woman succumbed after she accidentally fell into a septic tank and her husband met his end during a failed bid to rescue her.
Dead are Ramlall Dwarka, 51, a labourer and his wife, Camille Dwarka, called ‘Bucky’, 42.
The accident occurred around 9 pm in the backyard of the Hyde Park, Timehri house that they shared with other relatives.
The septic tank is estimated to be about six-feet deep.
According to a Guyana Police Force report, enquiries revealed that Dwarka was heading to the toilet when her niece, Anita Joseph, heard her screaming and went to her rescue.
Upon checking, the police said, Joseph discovered Dwarka had fallen into the septic tank.
She then called out for Madhoo, who the police said “jumped” into the septic tank to rescue Dwarka but was unable to do so.
The bodies were retrieved and taken to Diamond Hospital, where the couple was pronounced dead by the doctor on duty.
According to the police, their bodies were examined and there were no visible marks of violence.
At the scene yesterday, members of the couple’s family told Stabroek News that they remained puzzled as to how Dwarka fell in since the septic tank’s opening was small and she was a plus-sized woman.
They said Dwarka would usually bathe in the area around the septic tank, which was covered.
Another family member, they said, almost lost his life after he jumped in to save the couple. However, he was quickly fished out.
Joseph told Stabroek News that she was seated on the stairs of their house when Dwarka passed by her and went to the back of the yard.
“She [Dwarka] was looking for she bucket and then she tell me shine the [phone] light to see if she see she bucket. So I just turn the phone at the side. She seh she see it. So I tek off the light and she walk and go at the back,” Joseph explained.
“All I hear is one holler. When I run and go, I see she already in the tank [septic tank]… with she hand up… I didn’t see she fall down or hear any noise, nothing,” Joseph recalled.
She said she immediately called out to Madhoo, who was inside the house.
“By time I holler for she husband [Madhoo] and me mother and them run out, she [Dwarka] done fall pun she face. So she husband jump in fah see if he could pull up she face. Be time he was holding she by she back, he fall down… He [Madhoo] body go down and he mouth drink up the water and he start froth up,” Joseph further explained.
After an alarm was raised, Joseph said, residents of the area rushed to render assistance. She said the stench inhibited their efforts. However, they managed to rescue Madhoo. Shortly after, relatives said, he passed away. “He [Madhoo] just faint and fall down,” Joseph related.
Difficulty
The Guyana Fire Service (GFS) was summoned to assist in extracting Dwarka’s body from the septic tank.
They had to widen the septic tank’s opening be-fore Dwarka’s body could be removed.
Relatives told Stabroek News yesterday that it took hours for Dwarka body to be extracted. They said her body was removed around 2 am and “cuts and bruises” were inflicted during the process.
A relative, who wished not to be named, told this newspaper that he was upstairs with his wife, when he heard Joseph shouting out for them.
Initially, the man said, he didn’t believed Dwarka fell into the septic tank.
“When she (Joseph) holler out and seh that Bucky fall in the septic tank, I cuss. I seh she can’t fall in the septic tank unless the septic tank cave in,” the man noted.
He said he eventually ventured downstairs to see what was going on. “I didn’t believe. Nobody didn’t believe… Like when we realise what going on now and we call for the help, we can’t pull she [Dwarka] out ah deh. About ten men pull she out ah deh,” he added.
The man related that residents tried to get rope and ladder to rescue Dwarka but had difficulty. “We get he [Madhoo] out fuss. When he come out, he did still breathing heavily…. We had to pull he out… We try fah get he out ’cause we done see she (Dwarka), she done deh down in the water, so we seh okay leh we save he then,” he said.
The GFS, in a statement yesterday afternoon, advis-ed citizens that septic tanks should be cleaned on a “relatively regular” basis.
According to the statement, an average household septic tank should be inspected at least every three years by a septic service professional.
“The lack of cleaning and maintenance to septic tanks can present serious hazards, including septic cave-ins or collapses, mhane gas explosion hazards and asphyxiation hazards as well as risks of unsanitary conditions, such as bacterial or viral infections,” the statement advised.
