Think deep to curb drowning

By Nayak Paudel

Kathmandu, Apr 18 : Ranjan Shrestha, a 22-year-old permanent resident of Dolakha, and his friends had gone to Ward No. 9 of Chautara Sangachowkgadi Rural Municipality of Sindhupalchowk district from Kathmandu for recreation.

On Saturday afternoon, the group had gone to the Sunkoshi River for swimming. However, during the recreation, Shrestha went missing in the river.

“Shrestha dived too deep and went missing. He was later found dead,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Dakshya Kumar Basnet.

DSP Basnet, who is also the spokesperson for District Police Office, Sindhupalchowk, added, “There were around seven of them in total. Three of the friends were outside the river when the incident happened. It was already late when professionals had reached the scene for rescue.”

According to DSP Basnet, the group had gone to a secluded place due to which they couldn’t receive help at the earliest.

The daily news bulletins of the Nepal Police Headquarters show that 16 individuals, including seven children, have died of drowning across the country in the past two weeks from April 3 to April 16. “We have reviewed the cases of drowning incidents in Nepal with the help of Nepal Police data and it is worrying,” said Dr. Dijan Bhattarai, spokesperson for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA).

More than 500 cases of drowning are likely been recorded across Nepal annually in recent years.

As the days are hot, people, mostly from Terai, visit water bodies nearby or far for swimming. However, lack of knowledge about the respective water mass and inability to swim well has been leading to deaths.

“Mostly children are in risk of drowning and the major reason is lack of proper surveillance by the family members. Children drown in small sources of water due to which they need to be monitored well,” said Bhattarai.

Dev Raj Yadav, an eight-year-old of the Saptari district, was seriously injured after he got drowned while swimming at a local pond on April 10. He died while being rushed to the hospital.

Kanchan Gole, a five-year-old of Sindhuli district, also died of drowning on April 10. She drowned while swimming at Bagmati River in Ward No. 1 of Chandrapur Municipality of Rautahat district. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are an estimated 236,000 annual drowning deaths worldwide. It also states that the highest drowning rates are among children aged 1–4 years, followed by children aged 5–9 years.

“Local-level governments have a major role alongside the parents to prevent drowning incidents among children. However, seeing many adults drowned it can be said that there is a lack of awareness among people of all the age groups,” said Bhattarai, who is also a government under-secretary. 

Other than the local level’s responsibility, officials argued that there were no initiatives from the provincial and federal levels.

Meanwhile, drowning prevention had received less priority not only in Nepal but on a global scale.

It was only in April 2021 that the UN General Assembly decided to celebrate July 25 of every year as “World Drowning Prevention Day” with the motto “Anyone can drown, no one should”.

“We have also been aware of the losses by drowning. We are coming up with new plans and policies to prevent drowning incidents through coordination with UNICEF,” said Bhattarai.

Experts stress that teaching school-age children basic swimming, water safety, and safe rescue skills can be a proper approach to preventing drowning. The WHO suggests that installing barriers controlling access to water, providing safe places away from water, training bystanders in safe rescue and resuscitation, setting and enforcing safe boating, shipping and ferry regulations, and improving flood risk management can also prevent drowning.