'Water shortage killed my child'

A Port Elizabeth woman has blamed the municipality's current water shortage for her toddler's drowning in a bucket of water on Wednesday afternoon.

Tarryn van Vuuren, of Korsten, yesterday said her daughter, Brooklyn-Armani, 14 months, would still be alive if it were not for the water crisis that has caused some suburbs, especially in the northern areas, to go without water for a week so far.

"I know that if there was still water flowing through the taps this would have never happened," she said.

Water supply has been affected since Thursday last week when two pipelines from the Churchill and Impofu dams collapsed near the Van Stadens River Resort.

The collapses caused seven of the 54 reservoirs to run dry and left more than a third of the city without water.

Residents have been stockpiling water in bottles and buckets and storing them in their homes.

Van Vuuren said Brooklyn was in the care of a close friend, who has been taking care of her for the past few months while she was at work, when the incident occurred.

"I was working the night shift this week so I was sleeping when I got the call at around 1.20pm.

"I was told that she had fallen into a bucket of water and that I needed to go straight to Livingstone Hospital. But when I got there she was already gone," Van Vuuren said.

She said the child-minder had filled a bucket with water and Brooklyn drowned in it while trying to retrieve a toy.

"She is not gone because anyone was negligent. She is gone because of the water problem."

Police spokesman Warrant Officer Alwin Labans said the police had opened an inquest docket.