A Goed Fortuin family was yesterday afternoon plunged into mourning following the drowning of a nine-year-old boy. The dead lad is Alex Singh of Lot 17 Lancaster Street, Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerra, who drowned in the trench known as the “Airline”.
The nine-year-old was reportedly among a group of four boys who were playing cricket in the vicinity of the “Airline”, when the ball went into the trench. A journey to retrieve the ball later turned into an impromptu swim, during which Alex drowned, this newspaper was told.
According to the mother of one the four boys who is known as Veronica, the boys were playing in front of her yard yesterday afternoon. She said that the boys did not have afternoon school so she urged them to go home but they did not listen. She explained that this was shortly after one o’clock.
Veronica said that the boys continued playing for sometime, when her son told her that the ball had gone into the trench. “This was around three o’clock”, she stated. She said that she told her son to go and collect the ball and instructed the rest of the boys to go home. The woman said that she then returned to her kitchen where she was cooking at the time. The woman recounted that shortly after she heard shouting and was told that one of the boys was in the water.
According to her, she then rushed out and tried to get help from persons to get the boy out, but some men in the area refused to help. She said that shortly after two young men passed and they assisted in removing the Alex from the water. She said by the time he was removed he appeared to be dead but he was rushed to the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH). According to Veronica, she did not know who the boy was but a girl in the vicinity called his relatives who lived a short distance away.
Veronica’s son told this newspaper that after they went to retrieve the ball, they had all been playing around in the water. He said that they all thought Alex knew what he was doing. “We de see him bubbling up and down and we de think he was diving”, he said. The boy said that they were unaware that Alex could not swim, since he had told them that he could. He said that after they realised that Alex was in trouble they rushed to get help.
Meanwhile, the boy’s Uncle Danesh Singh told this newspaper that he was extremely shocked at the death of his nephew who he said was a good child. The uncle was not home at the time of the incident but he related what he had heard.
According to Singh, his nephew had returned home from school to have his lunch just after midday and told his stepfather that he was going back to school. He said that the boy’s stepfather Marvin Deolall had wanted Alex to stay home but he insisted that he wanted to go back to school. He was a Grade Four student (Primary 2) at the Goed Fortuin Primary School. The uncle said that they were later informed that the class teacher was not in school that afternoon and that there were no classes.
The uncle said that reports are that boy went back to school, met up with three boys and then went to play cricket. Singh said that the woman who sells at the school canteen told family members that Alex had bought some icicles from her then went off with some friends. The family did not know who these friends were, the man said.
According to the uncle, the family was informed about the incident just before three o’clock by a little girl. And according to him, efforts to resuscitate the boy at the scene proved futile and he was pronounced DOA at the WDRH. He said that at the time the boy was discovered he was clad in his underwear alone and his clothes were on the dam.
Singh said that his nephew was “an honest youth.” He said that his nephew did not normally go straying. He would be in the yard playing or he would go by the community centre. “He de like school bad”, Singh also said.
He was the second of seven children- four boys and 3 girls. His mother’s name is Nadia Singh. Her husband died sometime ago. At the time Stabroek News visited the family’s home, around 4:30 yesterday afternoon, both the mother and stepfather were assisting police with investigations. Relatives and friends were in the yard mourning the death of the boy.
Some were heard lamenting that the “Airline” had claimed another life. “Every year this trench does tek somebody life”, a resident told this newspaper. “That trench is very dangerous, it very deep and the current is strong”, the resident added.
