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A new child water safety initiative aimed at equipping children with survival swimming and basic water safety skills has been launched to reduce drowning incidents, particularly among communities living near water bodies.
The initiative, on the theme: “From Risk to Resilience: Empowering Children with Survival Swim Skills”, was launched in Accra in December last year by the Life Partners Platform, in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Johns Hopkins University’s International Injury Research Unit and the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Expected to roll out in Accra in January this year, the initiative is set to train 1,000 schoolchildren in survival swimming, water safety awareness and basic rescue skills.
Ten instructors, trained through a rigorous programme at the University of Ghana swimming pool, are to lead the sessions; most of them had already been involved in emergency response and disaster management.
Training will take place at selected sites, including the University of Ghana swimming pool, the Crystal Heights International School pool and supervised natural waterbodies, to prepare children for both controlled and real-life water environments.
Speaking at the launch, the Director-General of NADMO, Dr Joseph Bikanyi Kuyon, described the programme as the country’s first mass survival swimming and water safety intervention targeted at children, designed to address one of the country’s most persistent but preventable causes of death.
Dr Kuyon said data from a study by KNUST showed that about 1,370 people had lost their lives to drowning between 2019 and 2023, with children and young people below 35 years forming the majority of victims, posing a threat to national development and community resilience.
Dr Kuyon said communities located along the country’s coastlines, rivers and lakes were particularly exposed, yet most children in such areas had never received formal water safety or survival swimming training.
“As the lead government agency responsible for disaster risk reduction and emergency response, NADMO considered drowning prevention as critical as flood and fire prevention,” he said.
He appealed to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, parents and the media to champion the programme, as awareness, education and survival skills were key to protecting children and building safer, more resilient communities.
The Director for Geological and Radiological Disasters at NADMO, Dr Bertha Kusimi, said the scale of drowning in the country was alarming, but many incidents remained undocumented due to fragmented data across institutions such as the police, fire service and health agencies.
She said available research indicated that rivers and oceans accounted for most drowning cases, with children aged zero to five years, and adults between 20 and 34 years being the most affected.
Males, she added, were three times more likely to drown than females, largely due to risk-taking behaviour and occupational exposure.
The Country Representative of Life Partners Platform, Kofi Abrokwaa, said drowning was a preventable public health issue requiring policy commitment, community involvement and integration of water safety into school curricula.
