"We found them by groping through the mud" — Divers who recovered the bodies of a father and his children from the bottom of Charvak

“We found them by groping in the mud” — Divers who retrieved the bodies of a father and his sons from the bottom of Charvak

On September 2, three members of one family — a father and his two sons — drowned in the Charvak reservoir. According to official information, they entered an area where swimming is prohibited and bathed without life jackets.

Charvak is considered one of the deepest reservoirs in Uzbekistan. Finding and retrieving a drowned person there is not easy. This is because complex and dangerous search operations are carried out underwater under conditions where visibility is almost impossible.

Following the tragedy, the search lasted for nearly eight days. Ultimately, Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) divers found the bodies of the three deceased at the bottom of the water and brought them to the surface.

“Daryo” spoke with the MES divers who went underwater to search for and retrieve the drowned victims. They spoke about the most difficult moments of the search, the conditions at the bottom of Charvak, and how they found the deceased.

What actually happened?

According to the details of the incident, a family went out for a boat ride on the reservoir. They stopped to take photos in a part of the water where swimming is prohibited. Then they wanted to swim.

“During the swimming process, they did not use life jackets. As a result, the father and his two sons got cramps while swimming. At that time, the wind picked up, creating some waves in the water. The drowning occurred during that process,” says rescue squad commander Rustam Buriyev.

The person operating the boat said that swimming without a life jacket was not allowed, but the citizens did not follow the recommendation.

“The first one went in and got a cramp in his leg. Then the father went in to save him. Then another son went in. This tragic situation occurred one after another,” says the ministry representative.

The man's wife and sister were also on the boat. The women asked bystanders for help. The driver operating the boat also jumped into the water and tried to save them, but could not manage it.

Charvak is considered one of the largest and deepest water reservoirs in Uzbekistan. The area of the reservoir is nearly 40 square kilometers, and in some places, its width reaches 10 kilometers. The average depth is 50 meters, while the deepest parts are around 130–150 meters. The design capacity of the reservoir is nearly 2 billion cubic meters.

At the same time, Charvak is a major tourist destination where thousands of people come to relax during the summer months. According to MES data, official recreational facilities alone can accommodate nearly 7,000 people at one time.

Why was the search delayed?

In a conversation with the “Daryo” journalist, the commander of the Chirchiq city special rescue squad, Major Umidjon Tulaganov, who participated in the search for the drowned victims in the Charvak reservoir and retrieved the first body, spoke about the search process.

According to him, strong winds and waves were observed on the day of the tragedy. This moved the victims a significant distance underwater. Furthermore, no one could point out exactly where they had drowned. As a result, the search area expanded to a diameter of 5 kilometers, and seven rescue teams were involved in the search operations.

“For a long time, we could not find the location of the drowned victims. The area of the Charvak reservoir is very large. The biggest problem was that no one could show the exact location of where they drowned.

Another factor that complicated the search was the depth of the water. In the areas where we worked, the depth was around 22–23 meters. In addition, the bottom of the water is not rocky, but muddy. When a diver descended to the bottom, the mud rose due to movement, making the water as murky as fog. Under such conditions, visibility sometimes drops to half a meter,” said Umidjon Tulaganov.

“I found them by groping in the mud”

According to the commander of the Chirchiq city special rescue squad, the divers divided the search into sectors and checked the bottom of the water one by one.

“We also use flashlights underwater. A flashlight does not show the bottom of the water clearly, and it is difficult to see the distance precisely. But it helps to perceive the shape of objects underwater.

For example, when you move evenly along the bottom of the water, the color of everything looks almost the same. If you come across a larger stone or something else, particularly a body, its color or shape looks different.

When I turned on the flashlight, something like a dark spot appeared under the water. When I walked another two steps forward, that object came close to me. Then I realized it was the body of one of the drowned people,” he said.

The diver who retrieved the second body from the water — Giyos Imomov, an employee of the Chirchiq city special rescue squad — also told the “Daryo” journalist about how the search process went.

He noted that at a depth of 22 meters, under conditions where visibility was almost impossible, he found the body by groping with his hands in the mud at the bottom of the water.

“At a depth of about 20 meters, I was searching by groping the bottom of the water. Visibility was almost impossible. At that moment, my hand touched something. When I went closer and looked carefully, it was indeed one of the drowned victims. I held him, signaled to the top, and brought him up,” said the diver.

Major Umidjon Tulaganov, sharing what thoughts went through his mind when he found one of the drowned victims, noted that as the first days of the search yielded no results, the divers' self-confidence also began to be tested.

“Bringing a body from underwater to the surface also takes time. When I was bringing him up, I thought, ‘Thank God, one has been found. This means the search area has also shrunk, and the radius has become clearer. God willing, we will find the others too.’

After that, many people felt relieved. Because we had been searching for over a week. As the days go by, a person's self-confidence is tested: the thought arises, ‘Is it possible that so many people are working and we cannot find them?’ Finding the first body gave us great hope,” he said.

Although the water in Charvak looks attractive and beautiful, its waters can drag a person into its depths within a few seconds and end their life. For this reason, the simplest but most important rule of vacationing in Charvak is to swim only in permitted areas and not to enter the water in prohibited areas without a life jacket, experts emphasize.