Drowning could take 7.2m lives, particularly children, WHO warns

By Blessing Chinagorom

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that if care is not taken more than 7.2 million people, mainly children, could die by drowning by the year 2050.

In WHO’s first-ever published report on drowning prevention recently revealed that a 38% drop in the global drowning death rate since 2000 which it said it’s a major global health achievement.

However, the report noted that drowning remains a major public health issue with more than 30 people estimated to be drowning every hour and 300 000 people dying by drowning in 2021 alone.
Adding that almost half of all drowning deaths occur among people below the age of 29 years, and a quarter occur among children under the age of 5 years and kids without adult supervision are at an especially high risk of drowning.

It was further revealed that progress in reducing drowning has been uneven, saying at the global level, 9 in 10 drowning deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries.

“The WHO European Region saw a 68% drop in drowning death rate between 2000 and 2021, yet the rate fell by just 3% in the WHO African Region, which has the highest rate of any region with 5.6 deaths per 100 000 people.
“This may be influenced by the levels of national commitments to address the issue: within the African Region, only 15% of countries had a national strategy or plan for drowning prevention, compared to 45% of countries in the European Region”, the report added.

Outlining guidance to reduce deaths, the WHO said most drowning can be prevented by recommending a series of community- based actions for prevention, which include: the installation of barriers to prevent child access to water.

Provision of safe places away from water for pre-school children, teaching school-aged children basic swimming water safety and safe rescue skills; training people in rescue and resuscitation;

Strengthening public awareness on drowning; setting and enforcing safe boating, shipping and ferry regulations; and improving flood risk management.
However, the report found WHO’s evidence-based drowning prevention interventions are being implemented to varying degrees.

Encouragingly, 73% of countries have search and rescue services, and a further 73% implement community-based flood risk mitigation programmes

Says, only 33% of countries offer national programmes to train bystanders in safe rescue and resuscitation, just 22% integrate swimming and water safety training into their school curricula

Accurate data is critical to inform prevention strategies, yet only 65% of countries report collecting drowning data through civil registration and vital statistics systems.
Quality data is further required to compellingly raise awareness on the issue and mobilize governments and communities to take action.

Also, the report identified strengths and shortfalls in policy and legislation: While 81% of countries have laws on passenger safety for travelling by boat: Just 44% of these laws require regular safety inspections of the boats, and

Only 66% of countries mandate lifejacket use for recreational boating and transport on water; Of concern, 86% of countries lack laws for fencing around swimming pools, which is key to preventing child drowning in certain settings.

It added that this report, developed in response to a Member State request made through World Health Assembly Resolution 76.18 (2023), summarizes achievements and challenges towards drowning prevention at the global level and provides a benchmark for which progress can be tracked.

While the comprehensive report highlighted drowning prevention require coordinated, whole-of-society response via increased collaboration, investment, and those most vulnerable to drowning can be protected to ensure promising trends currently observed are experienced uniformly and equitably.