A child drowns in a water storage pit in Dashtiari County.

The lack of standard protection caused a 7-year-old child from Dashtiari County to drown in a “hotag” (water storage pit) and die. Since the beginning of this year, 8 citizens in the Balochistan region have lost their lives after drowning in hotags. Every year, many children drown in hotags or are attacked by goannas.

According to HRANA news agency, quoting Tasnim, the head of the Islamic Council of the village of "Sand Bahram" in Dashtiari said: A seven-year-old child fell into the water while playing around the "hot tub" in the village of "Sand Bahram" in Dashtiari county and died of suffocation.

Sajid Johar added: "This first-grade student had gone to the hot tub with other children from the village to play and swim, when he suddenly slipped on the edge of the water. After falling into the hot tub and not knowing how to swim, he drowned in the hot tub."

The report states that this is the eighth citizen to die this year in the Baluchistan region, located in the south of Sistan and Baluchestan province, after drowning in hot springs.

For years, due to the lack of piped water and the lack of proper management of minimal rainfall in Sistan and Baluchestan province, people have been forced to dig pits called hotaks to collect rainwater; some of these hotaks have also become natural places for water to collect. There is no fencing or platform around these pits, and for this reason, children either drown inside these hotaks or become prey to goannas while collecting water.

Source: HRANA