Friday, Mar 28, 2008
Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: The laughter of two small children playing in a courtyard under the vigilant supervision of their elder sister was the only sound that broke the silence engulfing the big house. No one would guess that the family living in the house was in mourning for their child.
Hadi Abdullah Awad, a six-year-old Emirati boy, drowned on Monday evening after he accidentally slipped and fell into a three-metre-deep pit filled with water. The pit had been dug to construct a sewerage system.
Looking out of the barred windows running along the length of the house, two girls, probably in their early teens, called out for their mother, Umm Hadi. She dragged her feet as she made her way to the front door.
Her lips parted as though she wanted to say something, but she merely stood, speechless. Tears filling her eyes, she placed an arm over her heart and then pointed skywards.
Hadi's stepmother, the his father's first wife, came out to pacify Umm Hadi. She asked her daughter to guide us to the pit where the accident happened.
Radiya, Hadi's step-sister came with us, along with two of her siblings, Asiya and Hazza. The site was three villas away.
"He was an active and good boy," Radiya remembered. "His mother screamed when she heard about his death," she added.
The pit is 135 metres long and the water collected in it was over a metre deep.
It was just another typical evening. A group of children were playing in the neighbourhood. Men returned from the nearby mosque after offering their evening prayer. One of them even shouted to three children, perched on top of a sand hill right beside the pit, to stay away from the place.
"My request fell on deaf ears. The children did not seem to be bothered," said a Bangladeshi driver who works in one of the houses. He left them at that but later heard that one of the boys had fallen into the recently-dug pit and drowned.
"It was a horrific sight," said Khadija, a homemaker who lives with her family in a villa next to the pit. She witnessed the boy drowning and the frantic efforts of a neighbour who tried to save the boy.
"These small boys are adventurous and curious. They probably wanted to take a peek into pit and slipped off," said Khadija. She herself has kids and said that it is very dangerous for such pits to be left open without proper safety measures. "There are many children residing in this area," she added.
Mohammad Ahmad Al Nuaimi, Hadi's neighbour, heard Hadi's friends shout for help. He quickly jumped in to save the boy but it was too late. Hadi had already died.
The parents of the boy took him to the hospital in a fruitless bid to save him.
Hadi was buried the next afternoon.
As we visited the locality, called Al Shawamekh area approximately 30 kilometres away from Abu Dhabi city, we came across several such pits. Not all were filled with water. Nevertheless, unless proper action is taken, another tragedy is waiting to happen.
Arabic daily Al Etihad has reported that the engineer in charge of safety at the site as well as the watchman have been arrested on charges of negligence.
These small boys are adventurous and curious. They probably wanted to take a peek into pit and slipped off."
Khadija, Neighbour
Gulf News 2008. All rights reserved.
