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School child hospitalized, others rescued after canoe sinks at Eteringbang
Two of the students rescued from the sinking Canoe
Kaieteur News – One school child is currently hospitalized and five others reportedly traumatized after a canoe they were paddling home in sank on Tuesday afternoon in the Cuyuni River.
The children live in the Venezuelan Community of San Martin located opposite Eteringbang but are all students of the Eteringbang Primary School.
They are between the ages of six and 10 and Kaieteur News understands that there was also a three-year-old child on board.
One resident said that it was around 16:00 hrs. when she heard screams coming from the riverside.
“Somebody seh dem children drowning deh,” the woman said as she recounted peeping out of her window and seeing the children in danger.
The woman said that her boat was at the landing so she alerted a captain immediately with some other individuals who rushed to the children’s rescue.
“We pull them out of the water but one of the children de done start getting blue spots on her skin,” the woman said.
That child was reportedly rushed to a health centre in San Martin.
A metal boat transporting the Canoe that sank with the School children.
News of the incident left many parents in the community outraged because the Guyana government has provided a boat with an outboard engine for the Eteringbang Primary School to transport the students to and from school because it’s a riverain area. The boat however is reportedly not being used for that purpose.
According to some parents, the boat is parked at a workshop while the outboard engine is being used by the assigned boat captain on another boat to taxi passengers across the Cuyuni River.
As a result, students are resorting to other means to get to school. Students whose parents do not own a boat and cannot afford the speed boat taxi fare would resort to paddling a small wooden boat to school.
One angry parent in a message to the Eteringbang Community WhatsApp Group asked, “Why is the boat not available, where is the person who is responsible for the boat”?
Kaieteur News learnt that Lorenzo Valenzuela is in charge of the community’s affairs and is responsible for the boat but has reportedly travelled to Bartica and left an order that no other captain should utilize the boat while he is away, except for the one he authorized.
The residents allege that the captain Valenzuela left in charge is corrupt and instead of taking the children to school, he uses the gasoline and the outboard engine provided for the school boat to fetch passengers and earn.
The boat captain has since denied these allegations. He claimed that there is no gasoline available to drop the children to and from school.
“We are waiting for Lorenzo to reach Bartica so we get the transportation system up again…Without gasoline how are we going to move the boat?” the boat captain said in his response to parents in the Eteringbang WhatsApp Group.
He then continued in his rant, “If y’all want the boat to work then find Gasoline.”
The School boat with outboard engine missing
The man also said that the school’s boat is only for students living in Eteringbang and not for those residing in San Martin and suggested that the students who reside at San Martin provide gasoline if they want their children to be transported to and from school.
Meanwhile, Valenzuela in a subsequent message reportedly apologized to the parents and residents of Eteringbang.
In a brief text message, he said, “Goodnight Eteringbang, we would like to inform the students of Eteringbang that we had a little delay with the fuel concerning the school boat. Fortunately it has been resolved and from Wednesday the transportation will be normalized for all school children of Eteringbang.”
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