The survey shows that one in every fourdeaths of children aged between one to four years of age was due todrowning in these places. The drowning rate alone exceeded deaths frommeasles, polio, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria and tuberculosiscombined.
In Vietnam , the rate of under-fivechildren deaths by drowning is equal to child mortality rates due toother diseases, but higher among older children.
Todeal with the situation, in recent years UNICEF has supported Vietnam inactivities to prevent child drownings, including building andimplementing waterway safety policies, raising people’s awareness ofdrowning risks and effective prevention, and especially teachingchildren to swim.
Lotta Sylwander, UNICEFrepresentative in Vietnam, said Vietnam’s Government and socialorganisations acknowledge the importance of drowning prevention and theneed to exert more efforts in this work.-VNA