A two-year-old child was allegedly drowned by her mother and its body then dumped in an abandoned house in Kaplan, near Mthatha, Eastern Cape police said on Tuesday.

Superintendent Mzukisi Fatyela said the woman allegedly drowned the baby in a dam on Monday.

Police discovered the child's body on Tuesday and the mother was arrested.

The woman said the child's father did not support her or the child.

She was due to appear in the Mthatha Magistrate's Court on Wednesday on a murder charge.