The Royal Life Saving Society had an event arranged to launch the Royal Life Saving Society Fatal Drowning in Commonwealth Countries Fact Sheet back in April 2020 at Marlborough House, home of the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Understandably, given the current COVID-19 pandemic and the UK lock-down restrictions, this event was postponed, and the intention was to host it later in the year. Given the uncertainty around the globe as to the longer-term effects of the pandemic we feel a face to face launch will not be possible, therefore we are releasing this piece of research electronically.
The World Health Organization back in 2014 released the first Global Report on Drowning and although this provided an overall picture of the terrible loss of life to drowning worldwide, we were uncertain as to the extent of the issue in the Commonwealth.
I am delighted that our Drowning Prevention Director, Dr Aminur Rahman from Bangladesh and a small working group agreed to research the fatal drowning number in Commonwealth countries and am pleased that we now have some figures that relate to the Commonwealth.
I would encourage you to read the Fact Sheet and supporting documents and would welcome your support in promoting this issue within your networks to avoid the unnecessary loss of life through drowning.