Annemarie Quill: Drowning rate gives sinking feeling

Annemarie Quill

The seasonal drowning statistics are off to a terrible start with seven people dead in a string of water tragedies around New Zealand's coastline during the first two days of the holidays, and an eighth person washed up on the beach.

The drowned include a 3-year-old boy who died on Christmas Day in Hawke's Bay and a 17-year-old who was caught in a rip on a beach in Whanganui. In addition to the seven, the body of a 22-year-old washed up on Mount beach.

Water Safety's warning about drownings has come horribly true - it said seven people would drown in the holiday fortnight, if the average drowning toll for the past five years continued.

The organisation warned "enough is enough" and called for all New Zealanders to think about water safety this Christmas.

You would think a country with such a high drowning rate and an extensive coastline would put a priority on teaching swimming from a young age.

Yet, as a Water Safety New Zealand campaign highlights, the very places where a previous generation of New Zealanders learned to swim - school swimming pools - are under threat of extinction. About 156 New Zealand school pools have closed in the past six years, and a further 130 are at risk.

Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Matt Claridge has said their concern is about the impact of fewer school pools on the drowning toll.

Schools have budgets to balance and many may have decided the upkeep of a pool is too much of a burden. Council pools offer an alternative, as do private swim schools.

Private swim lessons may be out of the reach of many families and, while there is family responsibility to teach water skills too, some adults may not be able to swim.

Water Safety reckons just one in five 10-year-olds can swim 200m, its benchmark for surviving in the water.

The Ministry of Education should include formal prescriptive requirements for water skills in the school curriculum.

What greater priority could there be in education than learning how to survive? Swimming is a key lesson that every child should have the right to learn.

-Annemarie Quill is magazine editor at Bay of Plenty Times

- Ana Apatu is taking a break. Her column will resume on January 12.