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At least, about 1,370 people die from drowning across the country annually, a research report from the School of Public Health of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has revealed.
Majority of drowning deaths occurred along river bodies, with significant numbers happening at recreational centres, particularly beaches, pools and in wells.
The study found out that the worst affected victims were males between the ages of 15 and 35 followed by children, zero to five years, who constitute 40 per cent of drowning deaths in the country.
According to the study conducted over a three-year period (2019- 2022), Ghanaian males were four times likely to drown than females,
putting the age-adjusted death rate due to drowning at 4.4 per 100,000 population, way higher than the last published by WHO data in 2020, which was at 2.4.
A Data Collection Supervisor with the School of Public Health of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ms Cara Aidoo, shared the findings in an exclusive interview with the Ghanaian Times yesterday ahead of this year’s World Drowning Prevention Day (WDPD).
Commemorated every July 25, the WDPD highlights the urgency of preventing drowning incidents as a growing public health threat claiming at least 370,000 lives yearly, worldwide.
This year’s observation has the theme, ‘Anyone Can Drown, But No One Should,’ to caution people about the threat and also remind people of the need to take the necessary steps to prevent drowning.
According to Ms Aidoo, the data was timely to serve as a basis for taking concrete actions in addressing drowning as a public health threat in the country.
“People don’t report drowning incidences and that is a worry. There are many places that people are drowning on a daily basis. You hear many of these stories in the communities yet people are unaware of the need to report them.”
Ms Aidoo called for a multi-pronged approach in preventing and controlling drowning accidents in the country including a national policy on drowning prevention.
“Everyone must be involved. Parents and caregivers must supervise their children. Teachers must be involved. Drowning borders on education, health, public safety, transportation, employment, law enforcement etc.
We have bye-laws that should look at whether there is a lifeguard by a pool, whether people are on water bodies with jackets, whether drains and wells are well covered but all these bye-laws are not being enforced and we are losing lives,” she stressed.
The Head of Geological and Radiological Department at the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Dr Bertha Kusimi, reacting to the development described the drowning scourge in Ghana as a “neglected public health concern.”
She said that it was in an effort to address the problem that NADMO partnered with the KNUST to conduct the baseline in order to inform policy decisions and interventions around drowning.
Dr Kusimi, also the WHO Focal person on Drowning Prevention in Ghana, encouraged the public not to trivialise incidences of drowning but report them to drive appropriate interventions.
“We are hoping that under reporting will cease in Ghana. We want people to come out whenever there is drowning to report the cases, the circumstances under which the drowning occurs, so that interventions will be data driven,” she urged.
She further called on parents and guardians to keep their wards under supervision whenever they get close to water sources while advocating the need for all people to have swimming skills as a primary way of minimising incidents of drowning.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
