Shawdesh desk:

At least 3,368 children have died from drowning across the country in the last three and a half years amid slow progress of a childcare development and safety project initiated by the government.

According to the latest data provided by the Society for Media and Suitable Human-communication Techniques (SoMaSHTe), some 3,805 people have become victims of drowning from January 1, 2020 to July 17 this year.

The media development and communication based organisation says, some 807 people died from drowning in 2020, 1,348 in 2021, 1130 in 2022 and 516 people have fallen victim till July 17 this year. Of the victims, 88.51 percent are children.

This statistics is prepared based on newspaper reports. The Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) believes that the actual number of fatalities is much higher in reality.

It said at least 11,000 children aged five years die from drowning every year and majority of these deaths are not reported in newspapers.

Drowning is now the second leading cause of death among children in Bangladesh after pneumonia.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended 10 necessary measures, including setting up of child daycare centres, swimming lessons, first aid, for reducing the number of this preventable death.

Considering these suggestions, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs in February 2022 approved a childcare development and safety project involving Tk 271.82 crore, with an implementation period of January 2022 to December 2024.

Bangladesh government will bear 80 percent of the cost while 20 percent will be funded by the US-based organisation Bloomberg Philanthropies and the UK-based organisation Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

The project, titled ‘Integrated Community Based Centre for Child Care, Protection and Swim-Safe Facilities’, aimed to work in 45 upazilas of 16 districts, including Barguna, Bhola, Patuakhali, Brahmanbaria, Chandpur, Laxmipur, Mymensingh, Netrakona, Sherpur, Narsingdi, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Sirajganj, Nilphamari, Habiganj and Sunamganj.

Under this three-year project, 8,000 community-based child care centres are supposed to be set up for 200,000 one to five-year-old children. A total of 25 children will get admission in each of the centres and stay there from 9:00am to 2:00pm. This will create employment opportunities for 16,000 rural women.

Besides, the project is supposed to introduce 1,600 swimming facilities for 3.6 lakh children between 6 and 10.

CIPRB Deputy Executive Director Aminur Rahman has said if implemented properly, the project will bring a significant decrease in the number of child drowning victims.

“If the project is properly implemented, the risk of drowning in children aged 1-5 years who stay in daycare centres will be reduced by 88 percent. At the same time, children who learn to swim between the ages of 6 and 10 will have a 96 percent reduction in death risk,” he said.

But, even after 17 months of the project launch, only 16 officers have been appointed in 16 districts. The NGOs have not started work and the project director has not been appointed yet.

The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and Bangladesh Shishu Academy have been given responsibility to implement the project nationally.

When contacted, Md Tarikul Islam Chowdhury, programme manager of the project, said they are working on it.

“We are finalising the list of NGOs to implement the project. We will send the list to the ministry in the end of this month. Hopefully, the project will get its expected pace from then and we will be able to execute it in the next 18 months,” he said.