Experts push for United Nations’ action on drowning

FOUR million people have fatally drowned in the past decade yet not one of the 26 000 resolutions by the United Nations directly addresses this ‘silent’ killer.

In an impassioned call to the World Conference on Drowning Prevention in Durban on Wednesday, Gemma May, the international advocacy manager from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in Britain, called on delegates to support a push for the first United Nations’ declaration on drowning.

She said in the United Nations’ history, drowning had not been mentioned in any resolution other than a ‘passing reference’ in the UN’s goal of eliminating child injuries by 2030. Although it is considered a preventable cause of death or injury, drowning is not mentioned in the UN goal to eliminate preventable deaths of children under five by 2030.

“Where is the drowning community? We need to get out of our box and start connecting with policymakers at the very highest levels,” she said.

RNLI is supporting a new and growing coalition of countries – including Bangladesh, Fiji, Vietnam, Thailand, Ireland and Denmark – that is lobbying for a UN resolution next year that recognises the scale of the problem, and the need for adequate resources.

The World Health Organisation’s head of injury prevention, Dr David Meddings, said the United Nations’ goal of ending preventable deaths among babies and children under five would fail without “massively scaling up drowning prevention.”

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He urged delegates to consider ways to work across sectors, for example, with disaster relief groups. UNICEF, for instance, has called for children and students in Vietnam to be taught swim survival skills to protect them during the flood season.

Of the 322,000 people who fatally drowned in 2016, more than 50 per cent were children aged under 15 years, according to the most recent WHO figures. More than 90 per cent of fatal drownings occur in low- to middle-income countries.

In some countries in Africa, the rate of drownings is about 13.1 per 100,000 compared with 1.1 per 100,000 in Australia. Across the world, drowning kills 126,831 children under 15 years, second only to meningitis that kills 134,477 children. In contrast to affluent countries such as Australia, drowning is a disease of poverty, the conference heard.

“The [322,000] figure was an estimate, and a conservative one at that,” said Dr Meddings. The figures also don’t include those who fatally drown in floods or water transport disasters, for instance. Research found 80 per cent of children drowned in a ditch, bucket or pond, and 80 per cent within 20 metres of home.

Lifesaving South Africa president Dhaya Sewduth also supported the call for a United Nation declaration on drowning. “The problem is much bigger than we think it is, and it disproportionately affects the poorest in our community,” he said.

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