Two little girls who went to visit their grandmother never made it home. Instead, 7-year-old Lauri Azucena Pimental Argueta and 8-year-old Anllely Daniela Pimental Argueta drowned in a water-filled septic tank pit on July 21, 2025, in Bella Vista Village, Toledo District, Belize.
The sisters left home around 4 p.m. for what should have been a quick trip to help their grandmother. But they took a different path and wandered onto a construction site where an open septic tank pit sat uncovered and full of rainwater.
When the girls didn’t show up, their worried mother, Delmy Argueta, called to check. That’s when the family started searching and made a heartbreaking discovery.
The children had left their bikes hidden behind a house near the pit. Their grandmother, Ligia Contreras, spotted one of the girls’ slippers by the water.
Contreras located the girls in the pit by using a stick to probe the well, feeling it touch one of the children. She said the girls had never done anything like this before and believed they went in innocently.
Village Chairman Jose Morales pieced together what happened from talking with the parents. The younger sister decided to take a bath in the pit, which looked like a swimming hole filled with water. She took off her clothes and got in.
“When the bigger one saw that the younger one was drowning, she tried to rescue her, and she also drowned along with her sister,” Morales told reporters.
When the family arrived around 5 p.m., Argueta jumped into the deep pit to pull out both daughters. The water was so deep that it covered her completely. “I tried everything I could to get them back, but it was already too late,” the devastated mother said.
Both girls were rushed to a clinic, but doctors couldn’t save them. Police are now investigating the deaths.
The children’s father, Selvin Pimentel, was supposed to go to work but instead found himself digging graves for his own daughters – something he never imagined he’d have to do.
The grief-stricken father made an emotional plea to anyone who digs pits or holes. He told reporters that poor pit safety took his children through carelessness, and he begged property owners to cover holes so no other family suffers this loss.
Pimentel explained how his older daughter died trying to save her little sister. He urged everyone in Belize to cover any holes they dig because children think the water is shallow and try to swim.
After the deaths, the property owner offered the family four steel bars. Pimentel was insulted and declined, asking if four pieces of metal were worth his daughters’ lives.
This kind of thing happens too often, according to Chairman Morales. Construction crews begin digging septic tanks during the dry season but often fail to complete the job before the rains arrive. The holes fill with water and become death traps.
Morales explained that people start septic work when it’s dry, but can’t always finish before the rainy season begins. Once the holes flood, workers can’t add concrete blocks or complete the job correctly.
The village plans to hold public meetings about construction safety. Morales said this is a serious problem the community must address.
Bella Vista is the largest village in the Toledo District, with approximately 3,500 residents. It sits ten miles from Independence and fifty miles north of Punta Gorda.
This makes the third child to die in water accidents in Belize since just last Saturday. The heartbroken family needs help paying for funeral costs and can be reached at 673-4366.
