At least 25 children, including girls, drowned in Cumilla, Chandpur, Noakhali and Jashore districts in the last seven days. Besides, seven children died from drowning in Chattogram, Chapainawabganj, Sherpur and Brahmanbaria districts during the Eid-ul-Azha holidays.
Drowning is the second leading cause of death for children under the age of five in the country, making it a major public health concern. Such terrible accident happens especially during monsoon as a large part of country’s land alongside rivers, canals, water bodies, and ponds is submerged every year caused by heavy rain coupled with onrush upstream hilly waters and floods.
Eighty percent of these drowning happen within 20 meters of the family home - mainly in ditches, ponds and other open water bodies and the lack of adequate supervision results in 70 percent of drowning deaths among children under five, according to a study.
If effective measures
are taken, such deaths
can be prevented
Each year, over 14,000 children in Bangladesh die due to drowning, according to WHO and UNICEF study. Globally, drowning claims the lives of over 230,000 people every year. Nine in ten drowning cases occur in low and middle-income countries, with children under the age of five being at the highest risk in our country.
In Bangladesh, where large areas of land remain submerged due to yearly floods, the absence of awareness and swimming skills can prove to be life-threatening. Children in rural areas who grow up near water bodies are also exposed daily to the risk of drowning.
The present government has adopted a three-year project that will reduce drowning deaths in children. The comprehensive project will be implemented in 45 upazilas of 16 districts to reduce child drowning during the hours of 9am - 1pm, when parents and elders are busy with work.
When this project will be implemented completely the untimely deaths of thousands of children in the country will be reduced drastically.
As monsoon is going on, the incidents of child death from drowning are occurring frequently. If effective measures are taken, such deaths can be prevented.
