30 children drown each day in Bangladesh: study

Thirty children under the age of five drown everyday in the country. If the age range is increased to under 18, then the daily number of such deaths rises to 40.

These were the findings of the National Alliance for Drowning Prevention (NADP), who are planning a national campaign to raise community-based awareness to prevent deaths by drowning.

NADP convener Sadrul Hasan Majumder, addressing an event at the Liberation War Museum, said the alarming numbers were down to a widespread lack of awareness and supervision over such deaths.

Studies have shown that about 60% of drowning incidents occur between 9am and 1pm, a time period when other members of the family, especially parents, in towns and villages are busy with different works.

Majumder said that if one- to five-year-old children could be kept in day care centres then 80% of the child deaths could be stopped.

Highlighting some of the obstacles to preventing drowning, he said that knowing how to swim was the first method of prevention, but swimming was treated as a sport and not an important life-saving skill. Studies have shown that if a child is taught to swim, their risk of drowning is reduced by about 90%, he said.

Stressing the need for teaching Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), Majumder added that many children were also harmed after being pulled out of water due to lack of proper treatment.