WHO in partnership with Sri Lanka Life Saving conducted twelve “Swim for safety (SfS) programmes in the Southern, Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and trained school children with the aims of childhood drowning prevention. 375 school children from the districts with high rates of drowning during past few years were trained on swimming skills, dangers in and around water, how to float, basic emergency response techniques and survival swimming techniques through Swim for Safety program.
Data from the Global Health Estimates (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.
Lack of swimming skills among different age groups has been identified as a major contributory factor for drowning in Sri Lanka. Increasing swimming skills of individuals is a vital need for preventing deaths due to drowning and related injuries. Learning swimming and being safe in water are skills that should be learned by school children/individuals irrespective of locations and socioeconomic status. In addition to increasing safety in and around water, the ability to swim enables access to a range of water-based recreation and competition opportunities, which contribute positively to health and wellbeing.
The objectives of the programme included training school children to be basic swimmers with a much-needed focus on water safety, training school children on safety measures needed to be taken before swimming, developing basic skills needed to attend to a person who has been drowned and teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and basic first aid. This programme has reached an estimate of 1125 beneficiaries on water safety and drowning prevention knowledge. Although it was challenging to complete the programmes as scheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, WHO and Sri Lanka Life Saving has been able to complete all the programmes adhering to the health and safety measures.
Note: The Sri Lanka Life Saving (SLLS) is affiliated to the International Life Saving Federation (ILS), Royal Life Saving (Commonwealth), International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF – UK) and UITEMATE – Nagaoka University of Technology, Japan.
Captures from the training:
Picture credits: Sri Lanka Life Saving
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