Ministry of Public Health urges parents to save their children from the risk of drowning

BANGKOK, 20 July 2016 (NNT) - The Ministry of Public Health has urged parents to save their children from the risk of drowning, after statistics on drownings among children under the age of 15, totaled over 10,000 in the past decade.

Minister of Public Health Dr Piyasakol Sakolsattayatorn, said today that a report from the World Health Organization revealed that 370,000 deaths per year result from drowning. Of that number, more than 50 percent are people under the age of 25. In addition, drowning is the third most common cause of death of people under the age of 15, following meningitis and AIDS.

In Thailand, Dr Piyasakol revealed that drowning is the No.1 cause of death among people under the age of 15, surpassing dengue fever and road accidents. Between the years 2006-2016, cases of drowning among people under the age of 15 averaged 91 per month, totaling over 10,000 for the decade. Most cases are due to playing in deep water or falling into ponds or wells.

Of the total number, 400 deaths were of children under the age of 5 who drowned in water tanks, basins and fish ponds in their own homes. Dr Piyasakol therefore urged parents to pay attention to their children and instruct them not to go near water sources.

In addition, the statistics revealed that 8.3 million children are currently between the ages of 5-14. Of this number, only 2 million are able to swim. Even then, only 300,000 have the necessary survival skills should they fall into water.

-- NNT 2016-07-20

"The Ministry of Public Health has urged parents to save their children from the risk of drowning."

If you have ever gone to a swimming pool in Thailand, the first thing you notice is children running around, jumping into the water unaware that they are landing on people who are in the pool, and parents doing nothing to stop these dangerous activities. Did I mention, there is no lifeguard to be found? Why should one expect parents to be more responsible around swimming areas and practicing safety than they are driving a car with their children unsecured by seat belts? Once again, Mai Pen Rai trumps all common sense.

Ten thousand in a decade is a lot. In fact that is one thousand per year or three a day on average. Probably more on weekends.

Good idea, teach them to be careful in or near water and let them ride motor bikes before their feet can touch the ground.

Instruct them not to go near water sources??? <deleted> sake, how about teaching them how to swim instead? Absolutely shocking and totally needless death statistics.

"The Ministry of Public Health has urged parents to save their children from the risk of drowning."

If you have ever gone to a swimming pool in Thailand, the first thing you notice is children running around, jumping into the water unaware that they are landing on people who are in the pool, and parents doing nothing to stop these dangerous activities. Did I mention, there is no lifeguard to be found? Why should one expect parents to be more responsible around swimming areas and practicing safety than they are driving a car with their children unsecured by seat belts? Once again, Mai Pen Rai trumps all common sense.

Careful the "if you don't like it leave" or the "don't bash Thailand it happens everywhere" brigades will be onto you with common sense comments like that

What perentage of Thai adults can swim? Fear of the water is so very pervasive - respect the water, and learn to swim; teach them all to behave responsibly in and with the water. The real tragedy is that no one wants to be responsible about teaching, or about safety.

My sons school in the kindergarten part have a fishpond that's about 60 cm deep with a plastic net around it ,if you touch the net it bends inward but they can't see the danger there ,they said to me no one has died yet so no problem ,I happy my son is older

The trouble in Thailand is that the concept of safety is not taught. In Europe safety is pushed down your throat every day just about so people grow up knowing what safety is and the consequences of ignoring it. Thailand seems to think safety is on of the inherent built in understands within people; it isn't.

Thailand needs to get qualified, and I emphasis the words 'get qualified', people to instruct and oversee safety. Just look at some of the building sites you see around Thailand they are scary places with notices proclaiming safety but certainly not upholding the concept. Construction workers with no safety equipment. Working at heights without harnesses.

I know nothing will change but it would not take a lot to make Thailand a country were safety is understood and enforced.

Ok now we have the Govt telling parents to be more careful, telling them Not to drink on Budda days, telling them to drive safely.

About bloody time the Thai Government, said a lot less and fined them appropriately.

making the parents whose children ride, and do other stupid things like murder etc, responsible, if a child dies because of parental inaction, take them to court. make the parent responsible for their offspring.

Nowadays boys do what they want and girls still toe the line because they have too.

This is becoming more and more a nanny state as parents are either incapable or lack any moral rules about their children and they seem to think that , as a Thai they are bullet proof.

I read somewhere recently that out of the 27000 people that were killed in road accidents (2013?) 7000 were children. This was a statement made by the Thai authorities. Now the same authorities are sayig that 1000 a year is more than 7000. My head hurts

The mans wisdom and advice has no limit. Does he just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind after picking up the latest global stats report? Of course you should save your kids from drowning. Now the tough part Mr. Minister... what policies will you implement to ensure this is the case? <sound of crickets chirping>...

"The Ministry of Public Health has urged parents to save their children from the risk of drowning."

Yet another less than meaningful pronouncement.

Perhaps if the Ministry of Public Health were to, reward in some way, those parents who take their children to swimming lessons to learn survival skills in the water and be able to prove that the child can do this then the drowning rate may decrease considerably. And no doubt there are many other ways of tackling this problem.

Show some leadership Ministry of Public Health, instead of jawboning!

Drowning the major cause of death in the 1:14 year old range for Thai children, after that motorbikes and road accidents take over.

The data from http://swimsafe.org/drowning/drowning-data/ clearly shows that swimming without adult supervision and kids not being taught to swim are major contributory factors. Thai parents do, on the whole, care about their kids, they just don't think that swimming lessons and supervision of kids playing are all that important and worth making sacrifices for. Thai society as a whole is not great at "anticipating the worst outcome"

China: Beijing 1 child dies from drowning every 2 days China: Jiangxi Province 13 children die from drowning every day Viet Nam 32 children die from drowning every day Cambodia 6 children die from drowning every day Thailand 7 children die from drowning every day Bangladesh 46 children die from drowning every day

Drowning causes in Thailand

Estimated number of child drowning deaths (per year)

2,645

Estimated number of child non-fatal drownings (per year)

3,000

Percentage of drowned children who were alone or with peers (%)

54%

Percentage of drowned children over 4 years old who could swim (%)

11%

Edited July 20, 20169 yr by tuanku

best take the boys swimming this avo

what's the risk of lightning strike?