Drowning deaths: Collectors asked to survey abandoned quarries for safety

PANAJI

Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, which took suo-motu cognisance of the incident in Cansaulim where a student died of drowning in an abandoned stone quarry, has asked the Collectors of both districts to conduct surveys of all such quarries in their jurisdiction.
In a statement, the Commission said, both District Magistrates have been urged to conduct a survey and verify if such quarries are legal or illegal and to restrain access through fencing with barbed wire so that there is no loss of human life.
The Commission's chairperson, Peter Borges said, it has also scheduled a joint site inspection of the site at Cansaulim on Friday to which the Deputy Collector, Mormugao, Verna Police Inspector and the Secretary of Cansaulim-Arrossim-Cuelim panchayat have also been summoned.
"Such preventable deaths, especially of children, in abandoned or unfenced quarry pits and mines, especially during the monsoon, is unacceptable," Borges said in his letter to the District Magistrates, pointing out that to deaths of children by drowning in such quarries over the past few years.
Borges said, many young adolescents find quarries to be safe places to swim due to still waters but the steep drop-offs, sharp rocks, submerged wires and industrial waste dumped there make swimming risky.
"Most such deaths can be prevented as they don’t happen by accident, instead the children go for a swim. Such casual swims have turned fatal for children, with no lifeguards, no rescue equipment, no fencing and no sign boards," his letter to the Collectors adds.
He said, the quarry business is widespread in rural and interior areas and many such quarries lie abandoned making it crucial for the government to survey and verify such quarries to curtail such incidents.
A compliance report has been sought by mid-August from the Collectors, Borges said.  

GOACAN stresses on placing safety signages at sites
MAPUSA: Stating that deaths due to drowning was a cause for concern in a tourist State of Goa, GOACAN Coordinator Roland Martins stressed on the need of erecting adequate safety signages at waterfalls and water bodies frequented by the public.
Martins on Wednesday also said it was important to address crucial issues such as making available of the safety equipment at key locations and imparting proper knowledge of first aid to be given to the survivor.
“The need for teaching swimming, water safety and safe rescue skills, training bystanders in safe rescue and resuscitation, putting in place and enforcing safe boating and ferry regulations and improving flood risk management are also some of the other measures that need attention,” Martins said.
The State witnessed a spate in drowning deaths in the last couple of days forcing the government to prohibit locals and tourists from visiting waterfalls and water bodies.
Martins informed that GOACAN will observe a fortnight-long awareness initiative on the need for drowning prevention measures in the State to get action-related responses from government officials.
The awareness fortnight will end on July 25 which is the ‘World Drowning Prevention Day’.
“It is part of the ongoing campaign by GOACAN to highlight the need for acceptance that drowning is an important cause of accidental deaths in Goa and that these deaths are preventable,” he said.
GOACAN began its campaign in 2020 to make consumers and all stakeholders aware of the importance of an action plan to prevent drowning cases in the unused laterite stone quarries of Goa.
In summer of 2021, the NGO highlighted the increase in drowning cases occurring in the river at Kodar in Ponda taluka and the need for preventive action to avoid drowning cases during the monsoons in the stone quarries of Bardez and Sattari talukas.
“During the awareness campaign, we will once again seek the intervention of the respective district collectors to undertake capacity building programmes as well as to seek inputs from officials of various departments,” Martins said.