When four-year-old Divya was rescued after she fell through a hole in the slab covering a drain at Gowliguda in Hyderabad, all that saved her from being swept away by the sewerage flow was a mound of garbage. She was rescued in under 20 minutes as the accident took place right next to the Hyderabad District Fire Office in the city.
The accident took place next to the Central Gurdwara Sahib on Sunday morning when the child was out with her relative to buy breakfast for the family. Officials rescued the child who had fallen 12 feet into a closed drain through a hole that had developed over the concrete slab covering the drain.
“It had rained heavily on Saturday and there was heavy sewerage flow in the drain. But the rains also brought in a lot of garbage, the child was stuck in the garbage mound. Had we been a little late we would not have been able to rescue her,” said Rajkumar, the station fire officer with the state fire department.
“We do not know who put a hole in the slab but we had informed the municipality officials to close the drain many times. Only if something happens to a child will open manholes and drains become a talking point,” he added.
Officials said that Divya is safe and back with her parents who are residents of the locality.
The officials of the district fire office were alerted by a messenger who immediately rushed to the scene armed with a ladder and rope. “The hole is small for a full grown man to enter. We opened a manhole a little ahead so that if the child gets swept away we can catch her,” said Kranti Kumar, the acting fire marshall who got into the manhole to rescue the child, “I didn't do it alone, my whole team worked with me. The child was terrified and crying she calmed down later, she is safe now,” the officer added.
The accident took place under the Central zone of Hyderabad managed by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). The Zonal commissioner in charge of the Gowliguda locality was unavailable for comment.