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Deaths due to drowning are preventable

Published : Friday, 22 October, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 488

Not a single day goes by without a drowning induced death taking place somewhere in the country. Perennial occurrences of such unfortunate incident reveals how desensitized we have become towards an easily avoidable cause of death. For the past consecutive days, series of such untoward incident did the round in this daily with the same headline just with the change of venue and number of casualties.

However, such daily reports of drowning simply reveal a grim picture of our indifference and unawareness. Going through the news reports published in this daily in different times gives us an idea that almost all the drowning took place in rural areas and in particular, children mainly fall victim to it.

Undeniably, almost every village in our country abounds with big or small ponds where death lurks muted. And underage children having little knowledge of swimming and little sense of danger or safety are extremely vulnerable to drowning. These children with their guardians, mostly occupied in household chores often get into accidents while hang about nearby ponds. Globally, drowning is a significant cause of mortality. It is the third leading cause of accidental death. The statistics of death by drowning among children in Bangladesh is worrying.

As of a 2016 survey of the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, some 40 children in Bangladesh die by drowning every day. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the number of deaths from drowning in Bangladesh is around 18,000 every year and drowning accounts for death of 43 percent children aged between 1 and 4. Superstitiously, many in our country term the death from drowning as preordained and among such people extreme degree of superstition and ignorance prevails at the back of their minds.

We believe, social awareness needs to be raised in this regard and all concerned including media's role is vital. Especially, children, come of age, must be well trained in swimming. Local administration, NGO's, voluntary organizations must come forward to address the drowning dilemma.

We can't help wondering - why in Bangladesh where child mortality rate in terms of pneumonia, diphtheria and polio has seen significant progress - drowning yet remains as a major cause for child death. While there is a global acknowledgement about the gravity of the problem, authority concerned in our country should also take it seriously.

Bangladesh is a country awash with water. Geologically, water is its reality. In this case, ensuring safe use of our water bodies and reservoirs is essential. We think rural areas dotted with so many water reservoirs need to put up fence around deep ponds for the protection of children. Water, the other name of life, should not turn into death-traps because of our inadvertencies.






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