Wading into watery death traps

In the wake of last week’s tragedy where four people drowned in the Kelani River at Kitulgala, police claim that it is mainly negligence on the part of the people that lead to such tragedies. While cautioning people against bathing in areas unfamiliar to them, police said people pay little heed to warning signs put up at spots identified as dangerous for bathing.

Kitulgala Inspector Jayanth Wanasinghe said many pilgrim parties are in the habit of stopping and taking a bath in the river without even inquiring whether the spot was safe or not. He said in some instances warning signs put up by the police or the Pradeshiya Sabha had been removed or vandalised.

“In one instance we had put up a warning sign at a spot that was dangerous and where scores of people had drowned. So we indicated the number of deaths on the sign board. However, somebody had erased the number before ‘0’ so that it read as zero deaths. He said vendors also sometimes removed these warning signs as they affected their business.

Inspector Wanasinghe said they had issued guidelines to those conducting white water rafting tours and hotels in the area had been advised to put up warning signs where necessary and also to have a few life jackets in readiness. Last week’s tragedy occurred when a group of people returning from a wedding in Hatton decided to take a dip in the river, at a spot they described as being shallow.

About 10, from a group of 22, had been bathing in the river when tragedy struck. Four people drowned – an 11 year-old girl, her 32-year-old aunt and two other girls aged 18 and 19.

In July last year two young employees of a private company in Colombo drowned when they had gone white water rafting on an office outing to Kitulgala. Subsequently, a Navy diver involved in search operations also drowned at the same spot. Meanwhile, a doctor at the Kitulgala Hospital said 19 cases of death due to drowning and 40-50 cases of near drowning incidents were reported to the hospital last year.