Water tank at BMC construction site explodes; 9-year-old killed, 3 injured

MUMBAI: A nine-year-old girl was killed and three others injured on Wednesday when an RCC water tank burst in Siddharth Nagar, Nagpada, on the BMC construction site where their families lived and worked. Despite the tragedy having occurred at around 10.30 am on Wednesday, the BMC only came for an inquiry to the site after 6 pm. Officials said they received the call about the incident late.

Nine-year-old cousins Afrin (Khushi) Shah and Minaz Khatoon were playing around the six-feet high water tank near their huts at the construction site. Their domestic worker mothers were away at their jobs and the neighbours were keeping a watch on them. Nazrana Bibi was washing the children’s faces at the designated spot beside the tank and Gulam Rasool was proceeding there with a bundle of clothes to be washed when the tank suddenly burst. “It was like the sound of a balloon popping loudly,” he said.

“Water from the tank washed over us and swept us away with its force. The cement-concrete slabs of the tank broke and flew everywhere,” said Nazrana from her bed in Fauzia Hospital, near the accident site. “We were all stuck beneath the slabs. We screamed for help, and those around rushed to extricate us and took us to hospital. But Afrin had suffered a direct blow from a slab and was dead.”

Afrin Shah, the deceased, hailed from Bihar and had returned to Mumbai on December 5 with her mother and one-year-old brother. She was taken from Fauzia Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival, to JJ Hospital for a post-mortem. By night, she was buried at the Bada Kabrastan at Charni Road.

Gulam Rasool was admitted to hospital with a broken leg and head injuries, while Minaz Khatoon and Nazrana Bibi hurt their backs. They are all stable.

The massive concrete slabs of the water tank lay strewn around the site of the burst. Having damaged one side of a hutment, remnants of the residents’ belongings—a broken bucket, a water tumbler, a stool and some clothes—were also scattered around.

“The water tank had just been constructed around 20 days ago, as the old plastic one had burst twice,” said Nazrana. Rasool added that a tanker was filling water into the tank through a long pipe. “The tank was not able to take the pressure of the water,” he said. This was also the official reason given by the BMC for the burst.

“I was at work when I received the call and I rushed to the hospital,” said Tarannum Parveen, mother of Afrin, who was in shock at the graveyard. “Afrin took care of her brother when I was away. My husband has just undergone surgery for a kidney stone at a Bihar hospital, for which I had gone to our village. But I came back to Mumbai to earn, as he is still recovering. My children and I were living with Minaz’s parents, as her father works at the construction site.”

The topic of compensation has not been broached.

The BMC’s disaster management department said the dead and injured all belonged to the contractor’s staff, although the site has been contracted by the BMC for the redevelopment of homes for the municipality’s SWM workers under the Ashray Yojana scheme.

“An accidental death report has been registered,” said senior inspector Ajay Kamble of Nagpada police station. “The water tank was constructed by workers for their own use temporarily. Legal action will be taken after we figure out who was responsible for the accident.”