World Drowning Prevention Day is going to be observed today in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world.
In Bangladesh, death by drowning is a common phenomenon especially during the rainy season.
Mostly recently, on July 6, bodies of three students were recovered from two rivers in Rangpur鈥檚 Badarganj upazila after they went missing while bathing.
According to the World Health Organisation, drowning has claimed over three million lives in the past decade 鈥� mostly children and youth 鈥� demanding urgent action now.
This year鈥檚 World Drowning Prevention Day is going to be observed with the theme 鈥榊our story can save a life鈥�.
In a report titled 鈥楪lobal Status Report on Drowning Prevention 2024鈥�, WHO estimated 9,600 drowning fatalities in 2021 in Bangladesh, down significantly from 21,112 deaths in 2018.
The report, a result of statistics from 139 countries and territories across the world, also estimated that globally estimated numbers of drowning deaths had fallen by 20 per cent over the past two decades, from 3,75,000 in 2000 to 3,00,000 in 2021.
Drowning is a significant threat to the lives of children and young people, ranking as the third leading global cause of death for children aged from 5 to 14 years, and the fourth leading global cause of death for children aged 1-4 years.
Over 90 per cent of drowning deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, highlighting that vulnerable communities are most at risk.
Citing the Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey 2018, the report said 40 per cent of the children aged between 1 and 4 years died due to drowning followed by 23 per cent of the children aged between 5 and 9 years, 14 per cent people aged between 40 and 59 years, each 6 per cent of people aged between 25 and 39 years and people aged over 60 years, 5 per cent of people aged between 0 and 4 years and 3 per cent of people of each age groups of 10-14 years and 15-17 years die from drowning.