Investigation into Westport toddler drowning

File photo NZ Herald

Police are investigating the circumstances around how a 21-month-old toddler drowned in a shallow pond that was fenced off.

Police said the girl was playing outside her home near Westport and was discovered by a family member lying in a shallow pond.

Attempts to resuscitate the girl were unsuccessful and she was pronounced dead at Westport Hospital, police said.

Waimangaroa chief fire officer Margaret Lilley said they were called to the incident at a local dairy farm just after 5.30pm on Tuesday.

"There was a paramedic there just prior, maybe 10 seconds before we arrived.

"Obviously they [had] pulled the wee one out from the water and one of the farm workers was administering CPR."

The toddler was the daughter of workers on the farm, Ms Lilley said.

"Our sympathy goes out to the parents."

Ms Lilley said she was not aware how the incident happened, but said there was a number of ponds on the property due to recent rains.

"[The mother is] blaming herself and saying 'I should have done this, I should have done that'. She was in shock, they both were in shock."

The farm's owner declined to comment on the incident but said the parents of the toddler had worked on the farm for about three years.

The girl is the second to die following an accident at a rural pond.

In January, 2-year-old Irene Nath died after falling in to a duck pond on a farm at Otapiri, in Southland.