Children learn swimming at Tang Bat Ho pool in Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung District. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – A conference took place in Hanoi on November 27 to review theoutcomes of a nationwide programme on safe swimming and drowning prevention forchildren for 2016-2020.
A reportpresented at the function showed that all 63 provinces and cities nationwidehave either set plans for or implemented the programme. In 2018, they increasedtheir budgets and mobilised resources related to communications activities,building swimming pools, and teaching children to swim.
Speaking atthe event, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Le Khanh Hai said by2020, the programme aims to reduce the number of child fatalities from drowningby 6 percent compared to the 2010-2015 period.
Accordingto him, it has also set the target of helping 40 percent of children at primaryand secondary schools learn water safety skills, and to ensure that 100 percentof sport facilities follow water safety regulations and have coaches andlifeguards by their pools.
He urgedprovincial- and municipal-level departments for culture, sports, and tourism tosubmit their plans on land and budget planning for implementing the programmein line with local conditions.
Other recommendedworks included building the capacity for swimming teachers and lifeguards,mobilising financial support from the public for the programme, and proposingpolicies that encourage business-school collaboration in teaching children howto swim and protect themselves in the water.
Drowningremains one of the leading causes of fatality among children and teenagers agedbelow 19 in Vietnam. About 2,000 Vietnamese children die annually due todrowning.
ThoughVietnam boasts 3,260km of coastline and many rivers and lakes, swimming is onlytaught as an extra-curricular activity or at courses outside school. A surveyby the Department of Child Care and Protection in 2017 found that only 35percent of children in the Mekong Delta and 10 percent in the Red River Deltacan actually swim.
Last year,the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs and eight other ministriesand state agencies signed an intersectoral plan for child drowning preventionwhile Vietnam’s child drowning prevention efforts have received great supportfrom the public, as well as both local and international organisations. –VNA
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