NIGERIA: The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has declared every 25 July as World Drowning Prevention Day.
This is meant to raise of the importance of drowning prevention and stress the need for urgent coordinated multi-sectoral action to improve water safety, to reduce preventable deaths.
The resolution was adopted o-+n the 28th of April by the United Nation General Assembly member states and member states have been urged to observe World Drowning Prevention Day annually.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the Director, Social Determinants of Health at WHO, Etienne Krug announced this on their various Twitter pages.
According to the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the adoption of the resolution is good news and is committed to greater efforts to preventing drowning.
“The resolution also establishes 25 July as UN World Drowning Prevention Day to raise awareness and share solutions to improve water safety and save lives. This UNGA resolution is an important step towards a safer, fairer, and healthier world”, the tweet read.
Etienne Krug in his Twitter page also tweeted, “Just adopted: New UN General Assembly resolution on drowning prevention declared every 25 July as World Drowning Prevention Day!”
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He expressed his excitement in working with all stakeholders to draw attention to drowning which is a leading killer and how to prevent it.
Krug also disclosed that he has been requested to take up the task of coordinating drowning prevention across the UN system.
About Drowning and Drowning Prevention
According to WHO data, over 230,000 people die from drowning every year across the world.
Drowning has been listed among the top 10 leading causes of death for children aged 5 to 14 years.
Drowning has been said to have killed about 2.5 million people in the last decade across the world.
The resolution raises concerns that drowning has been the cause of over 2.5 million preventable deaths in the past decade, but has been largely unrecognized relative to its impact.
90 per cent of deaths from drowning occur in low and middle-income countries, with Africa recording the world’s highest drowning rates while Asia carries the highest burden of drowning deaths by number.
The Resolution
The UN General Assembly in the reduction encouraged all Member States to appoint a national focal point for drowning prevention; develop a national drowning prevention plan, containing a set of measurable targets according to their needs and priorities, including as part of wider national health plans, policies and programmes.
Governments were also urged to develop drowning prevention programming in line with World Health Organization recommended interventions and include drowning within civil registration and vital statistics registers and aggregate all drowning mortality data into national estimates.
