Unless more New Zealand children learn to swim, drowning numbers will soar, according to a report by Water Safety New Zealand (WSNZ) today.
Research indicated that swimming ability among the country's youth had reached a "crisis point" and it forecast that continued failure to address the issue would result in a significant increase in drownings.
"When the findings of the research are matched with increases in population and increasing participation in water-based activities, we believe the drowning toll will exceed 150 deaths per annum within the next 12 years and then up to 180 beyond 2030," said WSNZ general manager Matt Claridge.
He said New Zealand already had one of the highest rates of drowning in the developed world, currently averaging 114 a year (2003-2007), and the Government needed to act to improve the situation.
"Learn to swim lessons were an integral component of the education delivered through the school system but this is no longer the case," Mr Claridge said. "Changes to the school curriculum and reduced funding have resulted in swimming lessons having a lower priority."
WSNZ wants the Government and its agencies to work together to develop a plan that encourages and supports schools, and that learning to swim once again be a compulsory component of the curriculum and reinstated in all schools, the NZPA reported.
The schools swimming issue is an important one, with programmes that politicians like to boast about being rather less effective than the boasts claimed. Where FINA development programmes can and do help in some regions of the world, governments could and should do more to improve matters. Some European countries have swimming down as compulsory in the curriculum. Looks good. The detail is less impressive: eight half an hour lessons per year is the obligation. Any teacher and coach will know that, while good to have something, four hours of water education a year is not nearly enough if you want to send your children down to the pool, lake or river and know that they'll be safe.
Down in South Africa, drowning is still a major cause of non-natural death for children under the age of 14, according to the 9th Annual Report of the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System (NIMSS), the national swim federation noted this week. It stated: "The three greatest manners of death for these children are pedestrian fatalities, drowning and burning. The leading cause of non-transport related deaths in the 0-14 age group is drowning."
According to Easlyn Young, national manager of Swimming South Africa’s (SSA) Learn to Swim (LTS) programme, death by drowning is a tragic and often silent reality, but we can stop the scourge of drowning by teaching our children to swim.
Of the 652 drowning deaths that were recorded during 2007, 44% were children under the age of 14, while 144 children were 4 years or younger. The statistics thus indicate that round about 2 people drown in South Africa everyday and that close to daily a child is lost to the tragedy of drowning.
“Every adult, who can swim, is a potential Swimming Instructor and Swimming South Africa has developed a strategy to harness these skills and expertise into a national collective to declare a war on drowning”, said Young.
Swimming is a fun loving recreational activity with enormous physical, health and social benefits. Swimming South Africa has devised a course that trains adults to teach swimming and train every parent with methods to introduce their toddlers to the water.
Simple techniques will educate the child with water safety knowledge, orientate the child to safety in and around an aquatic environment and prepare the child with basic skills for survival and recovery in the event of an accident.
The national swim federation noted: "The Learn to Swim Department is Swimming South Africa’s operational unit that ensures that everybody in South Africa has the opportunity to learn to swim. SSA is a public benefit organisation which controls and promotes all aquatic disciplines. LTS is the swimming skills development platform of SSA and provides quality swimming programmes to all South Africans."
