A boy drowned in artificial pond

A boy drowned in artificial pond

JAKARTA (JP): A six-year-old boy has been found dead in an
artificial pond in the Gading Serpong housing complex in
Tangerang.

Ilham Masyar was found by residents living close to the
housing complex after his father asked them to join the search
for the missing child. The body was found in water four meters
deep.

Some eyewitnesses said that they saw Ilham with three friends
going to the pond to swim and catch small fish.

The pond is a location where people have quarried sand for
years. The water, reaching a depth of ten meters, is rainwater.

Ilham, the first grade student at the Nurul Islam elementary
school, was the seventh victim drowned in the pond in the past
three years, local inhabitants said.

Ilham's father, Udin, who lives on Jl. Bidar I, Kelapa Dua
housing complex in Curug, Tangerang, not far from the pond, told
The Jakarta Post he regretted the developer did not put any signs
up around the pond.

"The developer should have posted security guard around the
pond to prohibit people and children from swimming or fishing in
it," said Joni, another resident of Bumi Kelapa Dua housing
complex.

PT Jakarta Baru Cosmopolitan, the developer of Gading Serpong
housing was not available for comment yesterday.

"I have no authority to discuss the situation," said Kumala
Dewa, an executive of the firm. (bsr/sur)