GARDEN ROUTE | KAROO NEWS - Today is World Drowning Prevention Day. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in South Africa, drowning claimed the lives of an estimated 2 403 of people in 2019. Today, the WHO calls on people around the world to “do one thing” to prevent drowning.

According to Dr Jill Fortuin, the executive director of drowning prevention at the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), it is priority for the NSRI to educate South Africans to help themselves when faced with water-related crises.

To mark World Drowning Prevention Day, initiatives such as water safety education, survival swimming and the deployment of pink rescue buoys are some of the key programmes within the organisation.

“The WHO has issued a call for people around the world to do one thing to prevent drowning,” Fortuin says. “As one of the leading causes of death globally - for children and young people ages one to 24 years - and as the third leading cause of injury-related deaths overall, drowning tragically claims more than 236 000 lives each year.”

In South Africa the picture is also bleak as we have approximately 1 500 fatal drownings each year, and about a third of those are children under the age of 14.

More than 90% of drowning deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, with children under the age of five being at 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.

The WHO recommends six evidence-based measures to prevent drowning: 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.

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 that use recommended best practice interventions.
• Governments can develop or announce new drowning prevention policies, strategies, legislation, or investment; convene multi-sectoral roundtables or parliamentary discussions on drowning burden and solutions, and introduce or commit to supporting drowning prevention programmes domestically or internationally.

'We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news'