The United Nations General Assembly adopted a historic resolution on global drowning prevention on 28 April 2021. The resolution recognises the scale and impact of drowning prevention globally, and calls for coordinated multisectoral action to prevent drowning, a leading cause of injury-related death and disability worldwide.
Global Health Estimates (GHE) 2019 revealed that 236,000 people drown every year, and drowning is among the ten leading causes of death for children and youth aged 1-24 years. More than 90% of drowning deaths occur in rivers, lakes, wells and domestic water storage vessels in low- and middle-income countries, with children and adolescents in rural areas disproportionately affected. Over half of the world’s drowning cases occur in the Western Pacific and South-East Asia Regions.
World Drowning Prevention Day is also an opportunity to highlight the tragic and profound impact of drowning on families and communities and offer life-saving solutions to prevent it. Drowning is not only a public health issue but also a socioeconomic development challenge. It presents a massive challenge when considering its impact on human capital and its economic burden to society.
Data from the GHE 2019 indicated that the age adjusted drowning death rate in Sri Lanka was 3.2/100 000 population. It was also revealed that among ages 5-29 years, drowning was among the 10 leading causes of deaths with being as high as the third cause of death among aged 15-29 years and 6th leading causes of death among 5-14 ages. WHO has been working with local partners in Sri Lanka including the MOH and Sri Lanka lifesaving to advocate for drowning prevention.
With the increasing cases of drowning in the island, WHO partnered with Sri Lanka Life Saving to document the sites with higher risks of drowning and road accidents and conduct a baseline assessment and a coordinating centre and hotline in two health areas. As a result, 85 awareness sessions on prevention measures were conducted reaching 8,500 families. Warning sign boards have been displayed and placed in areas where a risk of drowning was identified.
A country situational analysis for drowning was commissioned as an advocacy tool to assess drowning burden and to strengthen drowning prevention initiatives in the country. As a result, a National Drowning Report was issued in 2021. WHO further engaged in drowning prevention by improving the water competency skills of school children collaborating with the Sri Lanka Life Savings to enhance the swimming skills of 675 school children through 20 “Swim for Safety” programs.
This second ever World Drowning Prevention Day WHO reiterates its commitment to support the government of Sri Lanka together with support from civil society, academia, the private sector, the international community and their partners for downing prevention and invites and encourages all stakeholders to contribute to and engage to make a difference.
Further reading:
Drowning health topic: https://www.who.int/health-topics/drowning#tab=tab_1
Drowning fact sheet: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drowning
Guideline on provision of day-care and basic swimming and water safety skills training to prevent drowning: https://www.who.int/teams/social-determinants-of-health/safety-and-mobility/guideline-on-provision-of-day-care-and-basic-swimming-and-water-safety-skills-training-to-prevent-drowning