On April 28, 2021, The United Nations General Assembly adopted a historic resolution on global drowning prevention. The resolution recognizes the scale and impact of drowning prevention and calls for coordinated action to prevent drowning, a leading cause of injury-related death and disability worldwide.
A key element that resulted from this resolution is UN-recognized World Drowning Prevention Day. This will occur annually on July 25. All Stakeholders and their partners are invited and encouraged to contribute to and engage in this global activity. This day is for raising awareness of the importance of drowning prevention and the need for urgent action as a collective to improve water safety and reduce preventable deaths and injury.
In 2022 the World Health Organization issued a call for people to "Do One Thing" to help prevent drowning. This "One Thing" could be as simple as taking swimming lessons, putting on a lifejacket, or wearing blue on World Drowning Prevention Day.
For World Drowning Prevention Day 2024, the key message, as described by the World Health Organization's campaign page, is "seconds can save a life."
It may only take a few seconds for drowning to occur, but at the same time, safety measures to prevent drowning can also happen just as quickly. These small, simple actions, costing you only a few additional seconds, can save your life, or someone else's.
These simple actions include:
Putting on a lifejacket before getting on a boat
Telling someone before you leave for a swim or boating excursion
Volunteering to join your friend for a swim, rather than letting them go alone.
Checking the weather conditions
Choosing not to consume alcohol or drugs before entering the water
Keeping an eye on your children while they play in the water
This World Drowning Prevention Day, the World Health Organization asks you to share your stories about the seconds before or during a drowning incident, that helped to save a life.
WDPD 2024 Flag-Raising Ceremony
On Thursday, July 25, the Lifesaving Society staff gathered on the legislature grounds at Violet King Henry Plaza to raise the World Drowning Prevention Day flag.
We're incredibly grateful to have once again been joined by the Honourable Salma Lakhani, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, who gave a powerful speech on her connection to the drowning prevention mission.
We wish to give a heartfelt thank you to our guest speakers, who spoke on the impact of drowning on their communities, providing a crucial local context for this global problem:
Dr. Kathy Belton, President of the Lifesaving Society Alberta and Northwest Territories Branch
Carol Henke, Public Information Officer for the Calgary Fire Department
Zain Haji, Park Ranger for the City of Edmonton
Pascal Dumoulin, Health Promotion Facilitator for Alberta Health Services
We were also honoured to have had the following MLAs and MPs in attendance this year:
Jennifer Johnson: MLA for Lacombe-Ponoka.
Jackie Lovely: MLA for Camrose.
The Honourable Dale Nally: MLA for Morinville-St. Albert.
The Honourable Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk, ECA: MLA for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville.
Ziad Aboultaif: MP for Edmonton Manning.
If you missed our livestream of the ceremony, it's available to watch either on our Facebook page, or through our Linktree!
Go Blue For World Drowning Prevention Day
In support of World Drowning Prevention Day, this July 25, we encourage individuals and organizations to 'blue-out' their social media accounts.
To commemorate World Drowning Prevention Day, we encourage our affiliates to take part in our Swim to Survive® program. This course teaches the necessary skills to survive an unexpected fall into deep water. Meeting the Canadian Swim to Survive® Standard is an important first step to being safe around water.
ILS research findings from around the world offer clear evidence that teaching the survival swimming skills taught in Swim to Survive decreases drowning, reducing the mortality and morbidity from aquatic disasters by 50%.
Teaching and learning these skills are essential in our efforts to prevent drowning and water-related injury. Do your part and participate in World Drowning Prevention Day!
