Lakes acting police commissioner Maj. Gen. Enock Majok Machar. (Photo: Yang Ater).

A 12-year-old girl has died from drowning in an excavation site dug by a road construction company in Rumbek East County in Lakes State, the police confirmed.

The incident that occurred last week was the third of its kind, following two others in which two minors died in the excavations in Rumbek East County last year.

The acting commissioner of police in Lakes State, Maj. Gen. Enock Majok Machar said the young girl went to fetch firewood from a nearby bush when she went to drink from the reservoir before she fell into it and drowned.

“When she reached there, she fell into a hole full of water (reservoir) which was dug a long time ago, and it still has some water,” Machar said.

“These girls came carrying bundles of firewood, and put the woods down, and they went to drink from that water well because they were thirsty. This is where this girl under age 12 fell into the old water well and died in that hole.”

Gen. Majok said some rescuers rushed to the reservoir, removed the victim and brought her to Thon-aduel hospital, but she was pronounced dead and succumbed to death in the hospital.

“She died because she was thirsty and wanted to drink from that water well after spending long hours fetching for firewood in the bushes. This is what happened.”

Gen. Majok appealed to parents to avoid sending young children to fetch for firewood in the forests unaccompanied.

He said it’s not the role of the police to monitor such avoidable dangers, adding that parents must keenly watch over their children. He further said digging a reservoir on roadsides is too risky for humans and animals and appealed to local communities to close down the pits to avoid other similar tragedies.

“Even livestock which drink from that well still fall into the well and die. It needs the community to find another good water well or reservoir for their livestock in the community because that water well is already dangerous for all animals and human beings.

In December 2024, an activist encouraged the Lakes State government to fence off excavated murram sites after a young man who had just set up for the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) examination drowned in a deep pool of stagnant water there.