Forward of World Drowning Prevention Day on 25 July, the World Well being Group (WHO) is launching a brand new technical bundle to assist governments and communities implement seven confirmed measures to cut back drowning deaths.
Practically 300 000 folks die from drowning every year worldwide, and drowning stays among the many ten main causes of demise amongst kids aged 5-14 years. Many of those deaths happen in rivers, lakes, wells, home water storage containers and swimming swimming pools. Greater than 90% of drowning deaths happen in low- and middle-income nations.
Local weather change is rising drowning dangers. Excessive climate occasions corresponding to floods, storms and heatwaves have gotten extra frequent, contributing to increased threat of drowning. Research present a powerful affiliation between heatwaves and drowning. In the UK, for instance, analysis discovered that drowning deaths improve by 7.2% for each 1°C rise in temperature. The chance can be practically 5 instances increased on days when temperatures exceed 25°C in contrast with days beneath 10°C.
“Each drowning is a tragedy, and most are preventable,” mentioned Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-Common. “The seven PROTECT methods give nations sensible, evidence-based approaches to stop these tragedies, together with making water transport safer, educating college youngsters to swim, and getting ready for floods. Drowning prevention is not the job of 1 ministry; it belongs to everybody, and the lives it saves are the reward.”
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The seven methods, packaged below the acronym PROTECT, translate the imaginative and prescient of the first-ever World Technique for Drowning Prevention into sensible, actionable coverage steering. The technique was launched by the WHO-hosted World Alliance for Drowning Prevention in 2025. The PROTECT bundle supplies policy-makers with concrete, evidence-informed suggestions throughout seven interconnected domains to strengthen security round water:
- Physical infrastructure that promotes secure interplay with water;
- Rescue and resuscitation functionality for bystanders {and professional} responders;
- Occupational security for work round water;
- Transport security requirements for water journey;
- Education in primary swimming and water security;
- Child-care techniques and guarantee safeguarding; and
- Threat preparedness for floods and different multi-hazard emergencies.
The PROTECT bundle is being launched in Ghana in recognition of the nation’s rising political dedication to drowning prevention and its ongoing efforts to strengthen water security. In Ghana, an estimated 1100 folks die from drowning yearly, with kids and younger adults disproportionately affected. That is equal to round three deaths every single day.
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The launch highlights Ghana’s rising management in addressing this preventable tragedy and underscores the necessity for different governments to undertake evidence-based insurance policies that scale back drowning deaths and shield communities in danger.
The launch additionally builds on greater than a decade of collaboration between WHO, governments and companions to advance evidence-based drowning prevention motion world wide.
“This framework will save lives whereas constructing on the progress governments world wide are making to stop drowning deaths of their nations,” mentioned Dr Kelly Henning, who leads the general public well being program at Bloomberg Philanthropies. “Bloomberg Philanthropies has labored with governments worldwide to implement confirmed, efficient methods that scale back drowning deaths. We applaud the World Well being Group for its management on this difficulty and sit up for persevering with to help it and native governments as they use the PROTECT technical bundle.”
Since 2014, Bloomberg Philanthropies has partnered with WHO on drowning prevention, supporting the event of foundational sources which have guided international finest practices for prevention interventions, together with the PROTECT technical bundle.
This 12 months’s World Drowning Prevention Day theme “Unite to show the tide,” displays the necessity for coordinated motion throughout governments, sectors and communities to stop drowning and save lives.
