Drowning report highlights high rate of Manitoba child deaths

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This article was published 16/07/2018 (2109 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The rate of deadly drownings of young children in Manitoba is more than three times the national average, according to a new report from the Lifesaving Society.

The society released its annual drowning reports Monday, as part of its National Drowning Prevention Week initiatives.

The Canada-wide study shows one child under the age of four died by drowning for every 100,000 Canadians in 2015 (the latest numbers available in the 2018 report). That same category is 3.5 in Manitoba’s provincial drowning report.

“I wish I had a magic answer,” said Kevin Tordiffe, operations manager of the society’s Manitoba branch, when asked why this is the case.

“I think it’s evident we need to spend more time educating Manitobans on the importance of direct supervision when kids are near the water or in the water.”

Every one of the deadly drownings in Manitoba occurred when supervision was either absent or distracted, he added.

“It’s an easy thing for us to fix: if your kid is in the water, you need to be in the water with your kid,” he said. “Manitoba is a province of lakes. We shouldn’t be this lax as a province about the safety of people around water.”

The latest provincial report shows 12 people died by drowning in 2015, down almost 43 per cent from the previous year.

About 73 per cent of the drownings took place in the summer, and more than three-quarters of the victims were male.

Similar to previous years, swimming, playing near water, and boating continue to account for the majority of situations where drownings happened. Alcohol also remains a risk factor in drownings; alcohol was involved 62 per cent of the cases where young adults drowned in 2015, the society documents.