A two-year-old boy got drowned in a well last Sunday while playing with his siblings at Top Town, Ngleshie Amanfro in the Ga South Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.
The incident occurred when the boy, George Editor, accidentally stepped on a roofing sheet that was used to cover the well.
An uncle of the boy, who gave his name only as Red, told the Daily Graphic that the unfortunate incident happened at about 3:00 p.m.
He confirmed that the boy had since been buried after the incident was reported to the police.
Siblings
Red said he was home at about 3 p.m. that day when the other siblings of George rushed to inform him that he had fallen into a well while they were playing. He said he immediately rushed to the scene of the incident to try and rescue him.
He said one of the older siblings got into the well and used his legs to grab and pull him out of the well, and immediately they rushed him to hospital.
“It was not a very deep well, and so one of my nephews got in to get him out. After we managed to get him out, we rushed him to the nearby community clinic where we were asked to go to the Amanfro Polyclinic which we did.
“It was at the polyclinic that he was pronounced dead,” an obviously sad uncle narrated.
He described as very disappointing, the passing away of the toddler as he was hopeful he was going to survive, having thrown up some water after he had been brought out of the well.
“The family is down after the incident because this was a bubbly boy, full of life,” he said.
Mother’s pain
The mother of the deceased, Madam Matilda Dzikunu, who could not control her tears, said earlier she had gone out with George and on their way back home, he went to his elder brother at his barbershop.
“I was still on my way home when my other children came to inform me that George had fallen into a well. I said this cannot be true because I was with him some five minutes ago.
“It was when I rushed to the well with people gathered around it that I realised it was true,” the mother said amid sobs.
The single mother indicated that George was the last of the eight children she had.
Danger
Some neighbours of Madam Dzikunu who had gone to sympathise with her, expressed concern about how wells dug in the area posed danger to children in the neighbourhood.
They said mostly the wells were dug to provide water for construction works but they were often left improperly covered, thus posing great risks to children who naturally liked to go out to play.
“Unfortunately, those who dug the wells for construction purposes had stopped working and they did not provide safety covers for those wells.
“ We have tried to get those who contract these people to work to either demolish them or raise the walls around them to prevent people from falling into them without success. now our worse fear has been confirmed with this tragedy,” some of the neighbours who spoke to the Daily Graphic said.
