Septic tank drowning: chilling moment when mother realizes her three-year-old son has drowned
A heartbroken mother has told the horror moment she discovered her child had drowned in a septic tank.
Amanpreet and her family had planned to celebrate a friend’s housewarming on March 19, but the day quickly turned into a nightmare when her son, Nihal, went missing.
Following a frantic search of the property in Victoria, the three-year-old’s body was found in a septic tank after he stepped on the unsecured lid and fell in.
Those looking for Nihal had unknowingly passed by the tank several times and only entered after another child had his leg trapped in it.
When they looked inside, they found Nihal’s sweater on top of the murky water, revealing the little boy’s tragic fate.
Her three-year-old son, Nihal (pictured), is the third child to die after falling into a septic tank due to an unsecured lid, prompting new calls to make safety screens on the tanks mandatory
Septic tanks are usually found in rural areas that do not have access to a sewage system, creating space for waste storage.
Speaking to Kidsafe Victoria to raise awareness about the dangers of septic tanks, Amanpreet revealed that she had ‘never heard of a septic tank before that day’.
She also said she could not remember how many times she went over the lid of the tank before searching it.
“I ran past the septic tank six or seven times and said, ‘Nihal, mom is here,'” Amanpreet said.
“You don’t have to come to me… just say Mom.”
Another child ran past shortly afterwards and as he stepped on the lid he had turned it over, alerting the parents to Nihal’s possible location.
“My friend somehow removed the lid, I just saw dark water with some tissues and the sweater my son (was wearing) floating,” Amanpreet said through tears.
‘I kept shouting: ‘No, it’s not Nihal, it’s just his sweater.’
“But then a man pulled out the sweater, and it was my son.”
The mother complained that she “didn’t have time to prepare” for her son’s death and that she never got to say goodbye.
“(The) worst thing is that at the time he was angry with us because we didn’t let him go to the pool.”
A heartbroken mother, Amanpreet (pictured), talks about the moment she found out her son had drowned in a septic tank, hoping his story will help ‘prevent’ similar deaths
Amanpreet said she hoped her story would “prevent these types of accidents”, with Nihal being the third child to die under these circumstances in Australia in the past 18 months.
An 18-month-old boy died in April when he fell into a septic tank at Mt Liebig, a remote Aboriginal community about 200 miles west of Alice Springs.
Despite being resuscitated and transported to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide, he succumbed to his injuries four days later.
The deaths came just months after NT WorkSafe issued warnings about sealing septic tank lids after two other children died.
Kidsafe Victoria CEO Melanie Courtney said safety screens for septic tanks should be made mandatory nationwide.
“It’s a very simple mechanism that means if the lid breaks the child won’t fall through,” she told 9News.
“(We) urge all homeowners who have a septic tank on their property to check their system, check their lid and ensure it is inaccessible to children.”