Cape Town - Every year an estimated 2 000 people drown in South Africa – in anything from nappy buckets, to dams and the sea.
But this is just an estimate, based on mortuary figures, emergency services’ records and some data from Stats SA.
Now the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) has embarked on a project to start a drowning register, collecting data from all possible sources to try to establish what NSRI chief executive Cleeve Robertson calls an up-to-date and real reflection of the problem.
Without accurate data, it was difficult to know where and how to tackle the issue and prevent the high numbers of deaths.
“We don’t have accurate current data, but we estimate that more than 2 000 adults and children die in water every year in South Africa.
“We know less about those who don’t die, but who suffer serious injury and are disabled for the rest of their lives,” Robertson wrote in the Sea Rescue magazine.
In most provinces drowning was the fourth or fifth most common cause of unnatural death, Robertson said. Deaths were higher in children under five and among young black males.
Contributing factors were poor swimming ability, alcohol, rip currents, hypothermia, failure to wear life jackets and rapidly flowing rivers.
On Sunday, Meriel Bartlett, an executive director of the NSRI, said getting accurate statistics was essential.
“If we can understand the worst areas for drownings, we can better understand how to address the problem.”
A high number of drownings were in the nine to 14 age group, particularly boys, and many of these happened on farm dams.
In the deaths of children under two years, drowning often happened in nappy buckets.
The NSRI has been running a training programme, the WaterWise Academy, which targets youngsters, where the 12 NSRI instructors and nine volunteers go into classrooms and teach the children about issues around water and safety. They particularly target the nine- to 14-year-old age group, especially boys.
“They take the CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) dolls into classrooms and the kids do CPR pumping on the chest. They’re taught that this is what they do to keep the person alive, and they do it to the song Stayin Alive, because it’s got that rhythm.”
“We don’t go to privileged schools, they have access to information. We go into the rural and peri-rural areas, the poorest communities. Since the WaterWise programme started in 2006, we’ve taught 700 000 kids. It should be part of the school curriculum,” Bartlett said.
NSRI communications manager Andrew Ingram said included in the training were effective ways to remember the emergency number – 10177 – and basic water safety.
“Often what happens is one child gets into difficulties and his friend goes in to help, so two children end up drowning. We teach them it’s okay to say ‘no, I can’t help you’.”
In the Eden district last week, a child drowned in a dam. “The other girl with her had been in a WaterWise class and she knew she could drown if she went to help her friend, so she didn’t.
“It’s tragic that one child drowned, but it could have been two and it wasn’t.”
Cape Times