Thanh Hoa struggles to prevent child drowning

Thanh Hoa (VNA) – The central coastal province of Thanh Hoa is intensifying activities under the local project on sustainable interference to prevent child drowning after several incidents happened in the locality in the past five months.

According to the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, 16 accidents involving children happened in the province since the beginning of this year, 11 of which were drowning accidents.

Head of the department’s section for children affairs Nguyen Ngoc Thu said there are three major causes of the accidents, one of which is negligence on the part of families, who did not pay sufficient attention to educating and supervising children outside of school. Another reason is the unsafe living environment, and the third one is children’s lack of skills to cope with dangerous situations.

The department said it will conduct more educational campaigns in 20 communes on the risks of and measures to prevent child drowning accidents. Swimming classes will be held for children, with the goal of 2,200 children taught to swim this summer.

The province’s educational sector is coordinating with the Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism to install smart mobile swimming pools at local schools serving the training of swimming for children.

According to research by the United Nations Children’s Fund in Vietnam (UNICEF Vietnam), about 7,000 children drown each year in Vietnam.-VNA