The United Nations declared the 25th of July as World Drowning Prevention Day, and these are some ways you can help prevent drowning in South Africa.
South Africa (25 July 2022) – Today marks the official World Drowning Prevention day as declared by the United Nations in April 2021. This was done after it became clear that fatal drowning was a global problem, with an estimated 236,000 people drowning each year.
In South Africa, there are several organisations that advocate teaching people to swim and promoting water safety. The NSRI is South Africa’s leading water safety and rescue organisation.
Through initiatives set up by the organisation, hundreds of lives have been saved. A wonderful example of this is the NSRI Pink Buoys.
The NSRI Pink buoys are placed across beaches in South Africa as a way to help prevent drowning. The concept of the buoy is for the public to use it while they wait for a lifeguard or emergency services to arrive on the scene. The buoys had officially aided in saving over 100 lives this past February since being installed around South Africa. To date, that number has risen even more.
Aside from saving lives when using the Pink Buoy, the NSRI team launched an initiative this year that sees mobile swimming pools being installed at schools where drowning numbers are higher than average. These schools then have access to swimming lessons for their learners, equipping them with the essential life skill.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in South Africa, drowning claimed the lives of an estimated 2403 people in 2019; today, WHO issued a call for people around the world to “do one thing” to prevent drowning.
This is according to Dr Jill Fortuin – Executive Director of Drowning Prevention at the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), who says the NSRI’s one thing is educating South Africans to help themselves.
To mark World Drowning Prevention Day, initiatives such as Water Safety Education, Survival Swimming, and Deployment of Pink Rescue Buoys are some of the key programs within the organisation.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a call for people around the world to “do one thing” to prevent drowning. As one of the leading causes of death globally for children and young people ages 1 – 24 years and the third leading cause of injury-related deaths overall, drowning tragically claims more than 236,000 lives each year,” she adds.
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More than 90% of drowning deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, with children under the age of five being at the highest risk. These deaths are frequently linked to daily, routine activities, such as bathing, collecting water for domestic use, travelling over water on boats or ferries, and through occupational activity, such as fishing and aquaculture. The impacts of seasonal or extreme weather events – including monsoons – are also a frequent cause of drowning and are largely preventable through a number of interventions.
“WHO recommends six evidence-based measures to prevent drowning, including: installing barriers controlling access to water; training bystanders in safe rescue and resuscitation; teaching school-aged children basic swimming and water safety skills; providing supervised day care for children; setting and enforcing safe boating, shipping and ferry regulations; and improving flood risk management,“adds Dr Fortuin
This year, the theme of World Drowning Prevention Day invites the global community to “do one thing” to prevent drowning. Examples of actions that can be taken are as follows:
- Individuals can share drowning prevention and water safety advice with their families, friends, and colleagues; sign up for swimming or water safety lessons, or support local drowning prevention charities and groups.
- Groups can host public events to share water safety information; launch water safety campaigns, or commit to developing or delivering new drowning prevention programmes using recommended best practice interventions.
- Governments can develop or announce new drowning prevention policies, strategies, legislation, or investment; convene multisectoral roundtables or parliamentary discussions on drowning burden and solutions, and introduce or commit to supporting drowning prevention programming domestically or internationally.
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