More children die from drowning than road accidents
It has been established that more children die from drowning than from road accidents, the Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has observed.
Citing a World Health Organisation (WHO) 2015 report, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said drowning claimed about 372,000 lives globally each year.
This was contained in a speech read on behalf of the minister at a workshop organised by Felix Fitness Foundation, a private fitness establishment, on aquatic survival in Accra for 84 teachers.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang described the figures as alarming and called for efforts at educating the public about the dangers involved in aquatic activities to reduce the menace.
Drowning
The training, dubbed “Teacher’s aquatic survival workshop”, formed part of series of training programmes being organised by Felix Fitness Foundation to educate the public on aquatic activities and how to prevent people from drowning.
The World Health Organisation(Who) defines drowning as a process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion or immersion in liquid.
The WHO has also indicated that every hour, more than 40 people lose their lives to drowning.
Drowning includes children slipping unnoticed into ponds, pools or wells.
Adolescents sometimes also swim under the influence of alcohol or drugs and drown while passengers on vessels that capsize or residents of coastal communities can also drown when they are struck by flood.
Measures
The National Youth Coordinator of the Ghana Red Cross Society, Ernest P. Nyame-Annan, advised teachers to observe children during play time at school and other outdoor activities.
The Director of Felix Fitness Foundation, Felix Lucky Uzor, said the foundation had trained 8,919 students in 32 schools in the La-Dade Kotopon District.
He said apart from preventing drowning among children along waterways in Ghana, one of the main objectives of the foundation was the promotion of water safety.
