Tragedy struck a Harare family when a toddler drowned in a bucket half-filled with water in the main bedroom’s en suite bathroom on Christmas Eve.
One-and-a-half-year old Darren Nyokanhete was discovered by his mother Patience who had briefly gone to the kitchen.
Patience said: “I was with my two children who were playing hide-and-seek when I decided to go to the kitchen.
“When I returned a few moments later, I found the elder son Dylan covered in a bed spread. I started looking for Darren who I assumed was also hiding somewhere only to find his two little legs dangling from a bucket in the bathroom.
“I quickly removed him from the bucket and rushed to the Avenues Clinic, but it was too late. The heart responded to the emergency treatment, but water could not be pumped from his chest.”
Greendale suburb is one of the residential areas in Harare hardest hit by the water crisis, a situation that has resulted in residents storing water in all sorts of containers for bathing and other domestic chores.
“We have erratic water supplies in this area. We have not had water running for over a week now and when the water does come, it would be during the night when we would have gone to sleep. I am so distraught.”
The toddler’s father, Godfrey Nyokanhete, who runs Kinsho Garage along Mutare Road said: “I am lost for words and deeply heartbroken. The little boy brought so much joy to us.
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“Now he is gone all because of complications created by this Harare water crisis. He died on my birthday and that is very painful.”
Police spokesperson Inspector James Sabau could not comment on the issue, saying he was yet to get details of the tragedy.
