In two days, three minors drowned. Who is to blame?

On June 16 and 17 of this year, three minors drowned in Tajikistan, the youngest of whom was only one and a half years old.

The press service of the Committee for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense under the Government of Tajikistan reported that over the weekend, three children drowned in Tajikistan due to non-compliance with safety rules in water bodies. On June 16, a 10-year-old resident of the village of Khudgif in the Ivan Tojik rural jamoat of the Gorno-Maschi district of the Sughd region drowned while swimming in an irrigation canal in the village of Mekhnatabad in the Zafarabad district. The boy’s body was found and handed over to law enforcement authorities.

On the same day, in the Zafarabad district of the Sughd region, a 15-year-old resident of the “Firdavsi” dehkan farm in the village of Oburdon in the Maschi district drowned while swimming in the “Tajikistan” canal. The teenager’s body was discovered the same day.

The third incident was recorded in the Lakhsh district on June 17, 2024. A two-year-old resident of the village of Balkhak in the Nurofshon rural jamoat of the Lakhsh district fell into a ditch behind her house and drowned.

The main causes of these accidents, according to the committee, were swimming in unprepared places, inability to swim, and the negligence of parents who leave their children unattended near water bodies.

According to the Committee for Emergency Situations, since the beginning of the year to date, 66 people have drowned in the country’s water bodies, of which 31 were under the age of 16.