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Every hour more than thirty people die by drowning worldwide, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) first report on the scourge, which it warns mainly affects children and young people, with almost half dying before the age of 29.

A document presented this Friday by the UN health agency warns that if this trend continues, between now and 2050… More than 7.2 million people could die Drowning occurs mainly among children, who are at greater risk of drowning if they are not supervised by adults.

However, the agency assures that there is encouraging data, since the mortality rate due to this type of accident decreased by 38% since the turn of the century, a major achievement that he attributes to countries’ efforts to stop this avoidable health problem.

“The significant decline in drowning deaths since 2000 is great news and shows that the simple, practical measures recommended by WHO are working,” added WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, introducing the report.

Low- and middle-income countries most affected

While the decline in drowning deaths is widespread around the world, the report shows that it varies greatly by region, with the largest declines in Europe (68%) and the smallest in Africa (3%).

For example, in 2021, the highest number of drowning deaths occurred in the Western Pacific region (84,000), followed by the Southeast Asia (83,000), Africa (66,000) and Middle East (35,000) regions.

In total, the report shows that drowning has caused at least 3 million deaths over the past decade, with 300,000 of these deaths recorded in 2021.

Based on these data, WHO warns that drowning “disproportionately” affects the poor and marginalized: 92% of deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, where the death rate from this cause is 3.2 times higher than in high-income countries. income level. -country of income.

“Unequal” and “insufficient” preventive measures

According to the report, based on data from 139 of 193 UN member states, while most have seen their drowning death rates fall since the turn of the century, the implementation of preventive measures has not been “uniform”.

Thus, only 33% of countries analyzed currently offer national lifeguard training programs, while this percentage drops to 22% when it comes to integrating swimming lessons into school curricula.

Legislation also remains an “underutilized, albeit powerful” tool for drowning prevention, with only 14% of countries having laws governing the fencing of public and private swimming pools to prevent unsupervised access by minors.

Given this situation, WHO recommends that the international community invest more in these plans and laws, which it says could save the lives of more than 774,000 children between now and 2050, as well as prevent 178,000 non-fatal drownings. suffer serious, life-limiting injuries.

EFE