Tonight, the community of Bella Vista village in the Toledo District, and the family of two girls, aged 7 and 8, are in deep mourning after they drowned yesterday in a septic tank that was under construction. But how could something like this happen? Jomarie Lanza spoke to their parents:....
Delmi Argueta, Mother of Deceased Girls
"They went to run an errand for my mom but they never arrived there. What happened was they took another route and that's how they ended up in there. One of them was found without clothes and the other had on her clothes and they hid their bikes behind the house that was there. There they hid their bikes and the little one's clothes, and when I called my mom I asked if she had seen them and she said no. So she came out and that's when she saw their bikes, and when she started looking for them she found the clothes. She called me and when I got there they told me they were in that pit, and so I jumped in to take them out but there was nothing else I could do for them. They were already dead."
"I think that they wanted to swim in the water but they didn't know that the pit was deep, and we didn't even know that the pit was there. Not much time had passed since they made it because we had no idea that the hole was there. I don't know how we never realised it and I guess they thought it was shallow so they climbed in to swim. But it was very deep, we had to submerge for them. For me it's very hard because I never thought that both of my girls would die on the same day together. For me it's something I cannot explain. It is something so hard."
Selvin Pimentel, Father of Deceased girls
"When you make a pit please cover it, because what is happening to me I do not wish it on my worst enemy. My 2 girls are gone because of an irresponsibility."
"When you make a pit please have the authority to cover that pit so we don't have this same problem again. Look at me I am working to bury my girls, I am now digging my daughters graves. Something that I could never imagine. Look at how I am working out here, and I work at Farm 4. I thought I would be going to work today but I can't because we are digging the hole to bury my daughters. And the only thing I ask of all the people in Belize is that whenever you make a hole or a pit, to please cover it. There are so many innocent children that think that it's shallow and they try to swim in it and there they end up staying. When my other daughter saw the little one was drowning she got in to try and save her and there she stayed too. As owners of that hole they had a responsibility to cover it."
When you make a pit please cover it, because what is happening to me I do not wish it on my worst enemy. My 2 girls are gone because of an irresponsibility,
When you make a pit please have the authority to cover that pit so we don't have this same problem again. Look at me I am working to bury my girls, I am now digging my daughters graves. Something that I could never imagine. Look at how I am working out here, and I work at Farm 4. I thought I would be going to work today but I can't because we are digging the hole to bury my daughters. And the only thing I ask of all the people in Belize is that whenever you make a hole or a pit, to please cover it. There are so many innocent children that think that it's shallow and they try to swim in it and there they end up staying. When my other daughter saw the little one was drowning she got in to try and save her and there she stayed too. As owners of that hole they had a responsibility to cover it)
"Look at me, people see me smile, but they will never know how I feel inside. It was my daughters, when I got home from work at 10 in the night they would come and open the door for me, so I can enter my house. But now that I don't have my girls who will open the door for me to come inside? That is what hurts me."
Anyone that wishes to assist the family with burial expenses during this time can reach them at 673 4366.
We note that the death of these two - makes it three children who have died in water related accidents since Saturday.
