Bangladesh has the highest number of child drownings in the world.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), drowning is the third leading cause of death among children in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey (BHIS-2016) found drowning was the leading cause of death among children aged 1-17 years in Bangladesh, with approximately 14,438 children dying each year.
Mortality was the highest among children aged 1-4 years old, while more than 50% of the deaths occured before the victims' third birthday.
According to the Department of Health, drowning now claims 20,685 lives each year, including approximately 18,000 children under the age of 18. Every day, 50 children drown in the country.
Last week, in a village in Sirajganj district, two children named Tamim and Mostakim went out to play. They were four and six years old.
After a while, the family members started looking for the two children. At one stage, locals saw the two children floating in the pond next to the house. They were pronounced dead when taken to the hospital.
On June 3, two 14-year-old children went to bathe in a lake in Narayanganj’s Jallarpar lake on a rainy day at noon. Their bodies were later found floating. Neither of them knew how to swim.
Children are most at risk of drowning during the monsoon season, floods, and during public holidays such as Eid and Puja.
More than 80% of the drownings occur in natural bodies of water (ditches, ponds and canals) less than 20 metres from their house, experts said.
The Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey 2016 estimated the drowning mortality rate at 11.7 per 100,000 persons per year, corresponding to a total of 19,247 deaths, two-thirds of them involving children.
A study by the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) shows that most drownings occur in rural areas during the day between 9am-2pm when mothers are busy with housework or other chores and the children are left unsupervised.
Experts warn that there is a high risk of drowning incidents during the monsoon and festivals.
Compared to 2020, the number of drowning deaths in the country increased by 67% in 2021, according to a survey conducted by the non-governmental organization "Somashte".
Rejaul Haque, director of Somashte, said: “We see that in the last two years, most of the drowning deaths occurred in August. One in 10 deaths due to drowning occurred in a naval accident.”
Drowning has been found to be the leading factor causing deaths across the globe, which according to WHO claims the lives of 322,000 individuals every year.
There is evidence that ninety percent of these deaths occur in low-and middle-income countries. This has been accelerated by the reality that both parents in poorer households often have to work in distant places, leaving their children unattended.
Sadrul Hasan Mazumder, convener of the National Alliance for Drowning Prevention (NADP), said although drownings occur round the year, usually the number increases from April to September.
Former professor of medicine at BSMMU Dr Md Abdul Jalil Chowdhury said drowning is preventable but the rate of drowning cannot be reduced until the mass people become aware of the danger of drowning.
He emphasized arranging training for all children to learn to swim from the age of five.
There is a need for day-care centres in rural areas, in which case mothers can complete the work by keeping their children in a safe place. And training in schools and at various stages of first aid, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and immediate treatment in case of drowning, is essential.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) is already working on a drowning prevention strategy policy.
DGHS Line Director Dr Robed Amin said: ‘’Inventions are needed at all levels to reduce drowning deaths. We are developing a strategy that we started working on in 2020, and we hope to be able to publish it in the form of a policy by July 25. However, the Ministry of Health alone will not be able to implement it. The Ministry of Planning needs everyone's cooperation from the Ministry of Education.’’