Africa-Press – Tanzania. AS the World Drowning Prevention Day is marked for the first time globally today, estimates show that each year, up to 235,600 people drown, with drowning being among the ten leading causes of death for children aged 5-14 years.
Besides, Tanzania is considered one of the high-risk countries that have a drowning mortality rate of 1.5 to 3 persons per 100,000 people as indicated in the 2014 World Drowning Report.
A press statement issued yesterday by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Director, Dr Tigest Ketsela Mengestu, disclosed that globally, the death toll from drowning is almost two thirds that of malnutrition and well over half that of malaria. Dr Mengestu observed that unlike the above stated public health challenges; there are no broad prevention efforts that target drowning.
“More than 90 percent of drowning deaths occur in rivers, lakes, wells, domestic water storage vessels and swimming pools in low-and middle-income countries, with children and adolescents in rural areas disproportionately affected,” said Dr Mengestu.
She noted that Tanzania is endowed with numerous water bodies, including lakes, rivers and the Indian Ocean, therefore risks for drowning increases.
“Around Lake Victoria, one of the biggest water bodies in the country, drowning rate is very high among fishing communities, where 217 deaths by drowning per 100,000 occur. Most of these deaths occur among men.
“Globally, men are twice at risk of drowning than women. Livelihoods of communities that live near water bodies depend on economic activities that require frequent access to water, such as fisher communities on Lake Victoria in Mwanza, and other lakes and sea-weed farmers of Zanzibar,” she noted.
Considering the magnitude of the issue, she said the United Nations passed a resolution to combat drowning and invited WHO to coordinate actions on drowning prevention within the UN system.
Commemorated under the theme ‘Anyone Can Drown, No One Should’, she invited all stakeholders, including governments, UN agencies, civil society organizations, the private sector, academia and individuals to highlight the need for urgent, coordinated and multi-sectoral action.
Among such measures include installing barriers controlling access to water, providing safe places away from water such as crèches for pre-school children with capable childcare, and teaching swimming, water safety and safe rescue skills. Other measures are training bystanders in safe rescue and resuscitation as well as setting and enforcing safe boating, shipping and ferry regulation and improving flood risk management.
She commended organisations that have taken concrete action to study the issue of drowning in their communities and collaborating with communities to develop contextualized interventions to combat the problem.
“I commend the work of Milele Zanzibar Foundation that has been training seaweed farmers in Zanzibar to build their confidence to survive even as their trade requires them to go at deeper water, and Environmental Management and Economic Development Organization (EMEDO). “In Mwanza, they are undertaking a socio economic study with the aim of tackling drowning among fisher communities in Lake Victoria, which is being implemented in collaboration with the British Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI),” she said.
