Tragedy has struck a family from New Westminster, where a two-year-old girl died Wednesday night in an apparent drowning just outside home.

The toddler, identified by family members as Biftu Taju, somehow left home in the area of Stanley and Blackley streets after dark.

Her worried parents eventually found her in a watery drainage ditch around 11 p.m.

"Heartbreaking," her tearful father, Taju Adan, said of the terrible scene. "I see this girl, I saw my baby inside the water."

Police and paramedics were called to the property, and the child was rushed to hospital. Sadly, she couldn't be saved.

Authorities said the grieving family is being provided all available supports as police and the B.C. Coroners Service investigate what happened.

The case appears to bear similarities to that of Elijah Marsh, a Toronto three-year-old who walked out of his house in a T-shirt, boots and diaper and froze to death in 2015.

"That's part of our investigation, to determine how or why she was outside, if she walked out on her own, if there are other reasons she might be outside," said Sgt. Jeff Scott of the New Westminster Police Department.

Scott emphasized foul play is not suspected in the girl's death, but said police want a clear understanding of how things unfolded.

Biftu was the youngest of six siblings living at the home, which is located in an industrial part of New Westminster’s Queensborough neighbourhood. Her family, who moved from Ethiopia four years ago, was forced to live there by the region's tough housing market.

The toddler’s father said he had concerns about the drainage ditch outside the property before the tragedy, and last week asked B.C. Housing for help finding somewhere else to live. He said he was rejected.

"I told them… this area is really dangerous for my kids,” Adan said. “The guy, he told me you live in a house, someone is homeless and outside. He told me I don't do for you anything. Right now you can wait.”

The family's landlord, Jan Pazurik, shared their worries about the drainage ditch. He said a beaver dam has been causing the ditch to flood, an issue he said he's raised to the city multiple times.

"The culverts get damaged and plugged up and the city will not fix them," Pazurik said. "It's become a problem, and the ditches fill right up."

City staff did clear up the dam a month ago, but it appears the beaver returned, causing the water to build up again.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Jon Woodward