-Edited by Bev Mortimer- Fom 2016–2021 there were 3713 drownings in South Africa and according to the NSRI this is the highest number of drownings to have occurred in fresh water, dispelling the myth that most drownings occur in the ocean.
Dr Jill Fortuin, Executive Director of Drowning Prevention Services at the NSRI says the sea rescue organisation’s water safety programme is fully activated in all nine provinces in the country. “At the NSRI, our purpose is to save lives, change lives and create futures not only in certain areas but in all regions of South Africa.“
The mandate of the Drowning Prevention Department of the NSRI is to improve knowledge, attitude, and behaviour with regards to drownings,” Dr Fortuin says. The NSRI’s Drowning Prevention Department has three focus areas which are Research and Advocacy, Technology and Innovation, and Education and Training. The age group and province where most of the drownings occurred is in the 0-4 age category in the Northern Cape.
The NSRI has appointed Drowning Prevention Instructors in additional Provinces including the Free State, Mpumalanga, North-West and Limpopo. While the focus is primary and secondary school learners, the NSRI has included those employed in the agriculture sector, persons working in and around water and Regional Disaster Management organisations.
“These communities are vulnerable to drownings in farm dams, rivers, and streams and without formal swimming skills people too often find themselves in trouble,” Dr Fortuin says.
Brett Ayres, Director of Rescue Services says the NSRI has added 16 rescue bases in 8 of the 9 provinces since 2013, as well as extensively upgrading the rescue response capability in terms of skills, assets and networks in most of the other stations.
This is in addition to the NSRI’s life-guarding services and footprint, as well as up-skilling the swift water rescue capability at its stations around the country “We have added this capability because of the incident and rescue trends in these areas. We are also planning to add a rescue base in Limpopo Province, based at Tzaneen in the coming year or two, which will mean we have a rescue response in all 9 provinces,” Ayres says.
Dr Fortuin adds that the NSRI is encouraging the communities in these provinces, and especially the schools, to kindly open their doors to our instructors as the NSRI would like to continue to make South Africa a water safe nation.
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St Francis Chronicle 