Teenage Girl Drowns in Hidden Pit in Bella Vista

A Bella Vista father is calling on the community and authorities to take urgent action after his fourteen-year-old daughter, Eliza Pop, tragically drowned in a hidden pit dug into the river near their home. Alfredo Pop is now warning villagers of the dangers posed by these deep excavations and urging collective action to prevent further loss of life.

“They were bathing inside the shallow place,” Pop explained. “But now when she stepped back several, like, three metres from the riverside, she never knew that she found a deep place there where the excavator dug almost like 25 feet deep. So when she put the foot down now, she sank right in there. That’s what happened with my daughter.”

According to Pop, the river is usually shallow and safe for swimming, but illegal or unregulated sand excavation has created sudden and hazardous drop-offs underwater. “It’s sad because, you know, I felt a big loss because she’s the only one. If there’s no pit there, I think that could have never happened,” he said.

The grieving father is now sounding the alarm and calling on Bella Vista residents to unite and demand accountability. “What I want to tell the people from Bella Vista – we need to come together. Because of what happened, this will not stop. To stop this, let us come together. For whom is that pit? I don’t have any idea,” Pop said.

Pop is also appealing for government intervention. “I would want to advise our people from Bella Vista and make us try to do something about it, or the government make it look into it. Because of this, I lost my daughter already,” he added.