SEREKA Gordon is contemplating legal action against the National Water Commission (NWC) after her three-year-old son almost drowned in a sewage pit left open by workers of the water company in Seaview Gardens, St Andrew.

The 32-year-old mother said she could have lost her son, Domanicc Clarke, on Mothers’ Day last month when he fell into the open pit while playing with two siblings in Celebes Lane in Phase Two of the community.

Gordon said her son, covered in faeces, was saved by a teenager who yanked him from the pit by his wrist after realising what was happening.

The child’s siblings are 14 and six years old.

“All now I am traumatised. I am talking about it now and all now I am traumatised. Because all Mother’s Day I could have lost my son,” she told the Jamaica Observer, adding that she was inside her home, a stone’s throw from the opened pit, at the time of the incident.

Gordon is seeking advice on how to go about filing a lawsuit against the NWC.

“When you look at the sewage, on the surface it looks like concrete. So it looked like he was just testing it thinking it was concrete and fell in. But the hole should not have been open. It is over two years now that thing (sewer) is being fixed and all now it can’t fix,” she fumed.

The woman complained that the child carried had the pungent smell of faeces even after bathing multiple times following the incident. He was taken to a private doctor, who gave him anti-biotics and other medication to protect against diseases.

But residents told the Observer that Domanicc’s was the last of least three persons to have fallen in the pit and an opened hole next to it over the two years. The hole was dug up by residents to facilitate the fixing of a blocked sewer pipe which for more than two years caused the corrosive mixture to flow back into residents’ houses.

The residents said they have called the NWC repeatedly about the problem and that they were instructed by an employee at the organisation that the pipe was blocked far beneath the ground, and that it was difficult to access with heavy-duty drilling equipment due to the tight lane space.

They were told that if they were willing to dig to the pipe with shovels, the service company would then send team members to fix the blocked pipe. But six months after digging up the area, and following an Jamaica Observer report on the incident, nothing has been done to alleviate the residents’ discomfort and safety fears.

The residents said persons have been falling ill from the sewage, which has been flowing continuously from the pit.

Cashae Wilson, a mother of two who lives directly in front of the pit, said the area has become a mosquito-breeding site and that she has difficulty navigating around the huge hole to enter and exit her yard.

In April following an initial visit to the area in — located near to the Seaview Gardens Police Station — Corporate Public Relations Manager Charles Buchanan assured the Observer that the matter would be brought to the attention of the relevant departments of the company.

JMonday, Buchanan said that he had referred the matter to his co-workers.

“It was brought to the full attention of the various persons in the NWC. I will just have to have it referred again,” he said.

“Also, if legal action is being contemplated its normal for us to refer responses to the legal department, from a legal position,” he added.