Two young sisters, Lauri Azucena Pimental Argueta, age seven, and Anllely Daniela Pimental Argueta, age eight, sadly passed away on July 21, 2025, after drowning in a rain-filled septic tank pit still under construction in Bella Vista Village, Toledo District, Belize.
The sisters had left home around 4 p.m. to visit their grandmother, but strayed from their regular path. As a result, they ended up at a construction site where a septic tank pit, left uncovered and filled with rainwater, posed a hidden danger.
When the girls did not arrive as expected, their mother, Delmy Argueta, grew worried. She reached out to relatives to help search for them, which led to the tragic discovery.
The sisters’ bicycles were found hidden near a nearby house close to the construction site. Their grandmother, Ligia Contreras, noticed one of the girls’ slippers at the water’s edge.
Contreras found the children’s location by probing the pit with a stick and eventually felt one of them. She explained that the girls had never done anything like this before, and she believed they probably entered the water without realizing how dangerous it was.
Village Chairman Jose Morales spoke with the parents to understand what had happened. He explained that the younger sister, seeing the pit full of water, thought it was a pool and took her clothes off before getting in.
“When the older one saw her little sister struggling in the water, she tried to save her, but unfortunately, she also drowned,” Morales explained to the press.
The family arrived at the scene around 5 p.m. Argueta entered the pit herself—deep enough to completely submerge her—in a desperate attempt to rescue her daughters. “I did everything possible to save them, but it was already too late,” she said.
Both girls were taken to a local clinic, but medical staff were unable to resuscitate them. Police have launched an investigation into the incident.
Selvin Pimentel, their father, had planned to go to work that day, but instead found himself digging his daughters’ graves.
He urged everyone involved in construction to take safety seriously, pointing to negligence as the cause behind his daughters’ deaths.
He described how his eldest lost her life while trying to rescue the younger one, and called on all of Belize to ensure that open pits are properly covered to keep children from mistaking them for safe places to play.
After the tragedy, the property owner offered the family four steel bars. Pimentel declined, questioning how metal could compensate for the loss of his children.
Chairman Morales commented that unfinished building projects often become dangerous, noting that septic tanks started in the dry season are sometimes left incomplete and fill with water when the rains begin, creating serious hazards.
The village plans to hold public meetings to address construction safety, emphasizing the need for better safeguards to prevent future tragedies.
Bella Vista Village, which has about 3,500 residents, is located roughly 10 miles from Independence and 50 miles north of Punta Gorda.
These deaths bring the number of child drownings in Belize to three since the previous Saturday.