WHO is calling on the global community to “do one thing” to save lives on World Drowning Prevention Day

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a call to people around the world to “do one thing” to prevent drowning. As one of the leading global causes of death for children and youth ages 1 to 24 and the third leading cause of injury-related death overall, drowning tragically claims more than 236,000 lives each year. To encourage action and mark World Drowning Prevention Day, Jet d’Eau in Geneva will be lit up in blue tonight, accompanied by similar actions in other cities around the world.

––

More than 90% of drowning deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, with children under 5 at greatest risk. These deaths are often associated with daily, routine activities, such as swimming, collecting water for household use, traveling across water on boats or ferries, and fishing. The impacts of seasonal or extreme weather events – including monsoons – are also a common cause of drowning and these impacts are largely preventable through a number of interventions.

“Hundreds of thousands of people drown every year in the world. Most of these deaths are preventable with low-cost, evidence-based solutions,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Today, cities around the world are illuminating their monuments with blue light as a call to action for each of us to do our part to prevent drowning. Let’s stop the drowning.”

“Drowning is a global public health challenge, and at Bloomberg Philanthropies we are focused on implementing solutions to prevent it. Today we join our partners around the world in marking World Drowning Prevention Day and taking action,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries. “In many cases, we know what works to prevent drowning. We have developed tools and guidance to help governments implement solutions – and if we do more together, we really can save thousands of lives.”

WHO recommends 6 evidence-based measures to prevent drowning, including installing barriers that control access to water; training of observers for safe rescue and resuscitation; teaching school-aged children basic swimming skills and water safety; providing day care supervision for children; establishing and enforcing regulations on safe navigation, shipping and ferries; and improving flood risk management.

This year, the theme of World Drowning Prevention Day calls on the global community to “do one thing” to prevent drowning. Examples of actions that can be taken are as follows:

• Individuals they can share tips about drowning prevention and water safety with their families, friends and colleagues, sign up for swimming or water safety lessons, or support local drowning prevention charities and groups.
• groups can host public events to share water safety information, launch water safety campaigns, or commit to developing or delivering new drowning prevention programs using recommended best practice interventions.
• Governments may develop or announce new policies, strategies, legislation or investments in drowning prevention, convene multi-sector roundtables or parliamentary debates on the burden of drowning and solutions, and introduce or commit to supporting drowning prevention programs at the domestic or international level.

Many countries in the world have committed to drowning prevention programs. Bangladesh has begun a three-year program to reduce child drowning across the country. As part of the program, the government will take over 2,500 kindergartens established and funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies since 2012, and will expand the program by adding an additional 5,500 kindergartens to provide supervision for 200,000 children between the ages of 1 and 5.

Notes for editors:

WHO is working with partners including Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, as well as other UN agencies to raise awareness of drowning prevention.

Together, we support member states in designing and implementing drowning prevention initiatives based on published guidance documents. With support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bangladesh and Vietnam have identified and scaled up cost-effective approaches to prevent drowning among children, Uganda and Ghana are receiving funding to study the circumstances of drowning.

WHO published a a growing library of drowning prevention assessments and guidance documents. in 2014 Global Crash Report: Preventing the Leading Killer. In May 2022, the WHO published its latest directing on best practice recommendations for three of these interventions: provision of day care for children, basic swimming and water safety skills, and safe rescue and resuscitation training.

Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Drowning Prevention Initiative supports drowning prevention activities in Bangladesh, Uganda and Vietnam, including monitoring young children in daycare, teaching survival swimming to children aged 6-15 and improved data collection.

In 2021, the first UN General Assembly resolution on drowning prevention was adopted. The resolution asks WHO to coordinate drowning prevention actions within the UN system and lead preparations for World Drowning Prevention Day.

Global Virtual Webinar Event:

To mark World Drowning Prevention Day 2022, WHO and international partners will host a global virtual webinar on 27 July (12:00 – 13:30 CEST) to discuss approaches to working across the UN system to prevent drowning and showed “one thing” partners from around the world committed to prevent drowning in their communities. https://who.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0ldeiorzMpG9EQR-6AlBABlSQKCWQhUZ9w