On 23 July the World Health Organization released a technical package of seven evidence-based strategies designed to prevent drowning. The initiative arrives as nearly 300,000 people die from drowning worldwide each year, a toll that makes it one of the ten leading causes of death for children aged five to 14.
More than 90 per cent of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. In Ghana alone approximately 1,100 people drown annually, or three every day. The figures have remained stubbornly high despite repeated warnings, exposing gaps in basic prevention that the new framework now seeks to close.
The PROTECT strategies address physical infrastructure to create safe water environments, bystander rescue and resuscitation training, occupational safety for workers around water, safety standards for water transport, education in basic swimming and water safety, child-care systems and safeguarding, and preparedness for floods and other multi-hazard threats. Launched in Ghana in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the package supplies concrete guidance for policymakers across multiple sectors rather than leaving responsibility to a single ministry.
The seven PROTECT strategies give countries practical, evidence-based approaches to prevent these tragedies. Drowning prevention is not the job of one ministry; it belongs to everyone.
Those words from Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, underline the deliberate shift toward coordinated, community-level action. The measures focus on empowering families and local authorities to protect the most vulnerable, particularly children, through education, simple infrastructure changes and rapid-response skills. Such an approach values proactive solidarity over waiting for tragedy to strike.
The launch builds directly on the Global Strategy for Drowning Prevention agreed in 2025 by the WHO-hosted Global Alliance for Drowning Prevention. That strategy sets a target of reducing drowning deaths by 35 per cent by 2035. With World Drowning Prevention Day due on 25 July under the theme Unite to turn the tide, the timing is intended to convert renewed attention into sustained policy change at national level.
Dr Kelly Henning of Bloomberg Philanthropies welcomed the framework.
