In the Imanta neighborhood, a tragedy occurred in broad daylight that seemed impossible for a modern capital. A woman was trying to clear a downspout near her house but fell into a drainage ditch and drowned.
This terrible incident was reported by the Degpunktā program on TV3. The woman was 64 years old, had no health problems, and lived on Shkerseila Street in the Riga neighborhood of Imanta.
On Tuesday afternoon, she went to clear a downspout near her house and fell into a drainage ditch filled with water. This moment was captured by a surveillance camera on a neighboring house. The footage shows the woman lying on her stomach at the edge of the ditch, trying to reach for the pipe with her hands. At some point, she falls into the water and does not resurface.
Unfortunately, the recording was reviewed only after the fact. At the time of the tragedy, there was no one nearby. When a neighbor discovered the unfortunate woman half an hour later, she was already unresponsive.
By the way, the street where the tragedy occurred is known to Latvians from the documentary film of the same name (“Cross Street,” made back in 1989). The screenwriter Talivaldis Margevics is still aware of what is happening here. Among other local residents, he told journalists that problems with drainage ditches have persisted here for many years. A year ago, the Riga City Council announced a competition to bring the ditches into order; however, according to him, the work was only partially completed.
The Riga municipality, which journalists contacted, immediately stated that this was not the case. The ditches along the street were supposedly cleared at the end of 2023, so the municipality is not to blame. The heavy snowfall and frosts, which have now led to rising water levels in the drainage ditches due to warming, are to blame, as some pipes under the access roads to private homes cannot handle the water drainage.
On March 2, municipal specialists inspected Shkerseila and instructed a contractor to carry out emergency flushing of the pipes in the coming days.
One wants to ask — is that all? The Riga City Council has gained a sad reputation in recent years for being deeply involved in political rather than practical issues. Renaming streets, demolishing monuments, and memorial plaques — there is no equal to it in this regard, and it regularly reports its victories in this area. But as soon as it comes to the deteriorating municipal infrastructure, the council leadership suddenly becomes dull. Unfortunately, no criticism from the citizens has managed to dislodge the “coalition of change” from their entrenched positions; after the elections, they merely shuffled a few positions and remained in place. The result is evident: the municipal infrastructure is still in disrepair.
Currently, a criminal case has been initiated regarding the tragedy on Cross Street. The investigation will check both the cause of death and all the circumstances that led to it. One hopes that it will establish the degree of responsibility of officials who were supposed to ensure that the drainage systems functioned properly, so that Riga residents in the 21st century do not drown in drainage ditches, as their ancestors did in the Middle Ages.
