Community awareness is essential to tackling drowning epidemic: Experts

Participants attending the inauguration ceremony of the national campaign undertaken by National Alliance for Drowning Prevention (NADP) held at the Muktijuddha Jadughar recently underscored the importance of building awareness among critical masses and developing a multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism to move forward in attaining the state agenda of tackling the drowning epidemic mandated through the UN resolution on global drowning prevention.

Chaired by Professor Dr Md Abdul Jalil Chowdhury, the Secretary-General of NADP, the inauguration of the national campaign was attended by the representatives of media from the national and district level, representative of WHO, Civil Society members, cultural activists, and NGOs from sixty-four districts of the country, said a press release. 

The inauguration ceremony was started with the national anthem rendered by the students of Nalonda High School – a culturally integrated education programme of Chhayanaut.

Professor Dr Jalil in his concluding remark urged all the citizens to participate in the campaign and bring the messages of drowning prevention down to the remotest corner of the communities.

Welcoming the participants Sadrul Hasan Mazumder, the convener of the alliance has explained the context of launching the campaign and urged the participants to bring real-time awareness among communities for sustaining and scaling up the tested interventions of drowning prevention in Bangladesh.

Explaining the global and national status of drowning during the presentation titled "raising voices to tackle drowning epidemic in Bangladesh" Sadrul reminds the state obligation following the UNGA resolution on global drowning prevention and mentioned that the government of Bangladesh under the leadership of DGHS has initiated the process of framing national strategy on drowning prevention.

Technology Adviser of NADP, Saiful Islam Raju in his presentation titled "Real-time reporting protocol of drowning incidence" explained the alliance's initiative to develop a platform where citizens at large can report about the drowning incidences that take place across communities firsthand.

Such a platform will help the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to enrich the current Management Information System (MIS), he added.

Explaining the consequences of child drowning, Dr Shayla Imam Kanta, assistant professor, Pediatric Neuroscience Department of Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute underscored the importance of the campaign, which will help to enhance awareness among communities to reject all forms of harmful traditional practices and to follow the scientific method like Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) for first responders.