Six-year-old girl dies after falling into open manhole in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: A six-year-old girl died on Sunday after falling into an open manhole on a road in the Paretabad area of Hyderabad in Sindh.

According to the eyewitnesses, the girl Aroma accidentally stepped on the open manhole and fell into the sewerage near Mahajir mosque in the area. Soon after the incident, the nearby people rushed to pull her out but in vain.

The Rescue 1122 was called but by the time rescuers reached, the girl had disappeared into the sewerage. After quite a struggle, the local had managed to retrieve the girl out of the sewerage and shifted her to the Civil Hospital, Hyderabad where the minor girl was pronounced dead.

Following the incident, a large number of local residents staged a strong protest demonstration against the city district government stating that the tragedy took place because of the sheer negligence on part of the local administration.

According to the locals, several manholes were not covered in the area for long despite complaints.

Deaths of children after falling in open manholes are not a rare incident in the Sindh and Karachi because of poor sanitation systems particularly in the low-income neighbourhood and suburbs of the province.

In April, a three-year-old girl was died after falling into a manhole in Allah Wala Town, area of Karachi. The residents of the area fished her out from the manhole and took her to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, but she had died before reaching the hospital.