Why did 131 children in Nghe An die from drowning in the past 2 and a half years?

On the afternoon of July 6, the 14th session of the 18th Nghe An Provincial People's Council, term 2021 - 2026, held a question and answer session.

Comrades: Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation; Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Nhu Khoi - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council chaired the meeting.

Attending the working session were comrades: Nguyen Van Thong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Hoang Nghia Hieu - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province; comrades of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Party Executive Committee; delegates of the Provincial People's Council from 21 delegation groups and invited delegates.

Provincial People's Council delegates questioned the Director of the Department of Education and Training and the Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs on the following contents: "Prevention and control of school violence; life skills education for students; prevention and control of accidents, injuries, and drowning; protection, care and education of children in special circumstances... Current situation, causes, responsibilities and solutions in the coming time".

Delegate Le Van Luong (Thai Hoa Town Delegate Group) said that drowning is the main cause of death for children in recent times. Through the report, the Provincial People's Committee has had many solutions in preventing and combating drowning and this is also the responsibility of many levels and many sectors.

"So what is the responsibility and main cause of death due to drowning in children; what new solutions will the industry advise the Provincial People's Committee to limit this situation in the coming time?", delegate Luong asked.

Responding to the question of delegate Le Van Luong, Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Doan Hong Vu said that in the period from 2021 to June 2023, 131 children died from drowning in the province, with an average of 35 child drowning incidents each year, with over 50 children dying.

The Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said that there are many reasons for the above situation. One of the objective reasons is that Nghe An has a system of many rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, and a long coastline. Unpredictable rain, floods, droughts...

However, the main cause is subjective, associated with the responsibility of the subjects. First of all, some families are busy with economic activities; parents work far away, children stay at home with grandparents, siblings; due to carelessness of relatives, lack of supervision, children fall into ponds, lakes, rivers... and lead to drowning.

According to statistics on drowning cases, the rate of drowning in ponds and lakes near houses is quite high. In 2020, the rate was 34% with 19/56 children; in 2021, the rate was 40.4% with 21/52 children; in 2022, the rate was 43.34% with 23/53 children; in the first 6 months of 2023, the rate was 26.9% with 7/26 children.

Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Doan Hong Vu said that the second reason is that the number of children who do not know how to swim and have not been trained in safe swimming skills in the water environment. According to statistics, the total number of children and primary and secondary school students in the area is 511,498, of which the rate of swimming in primary school is only 17.3%; secondary school is 33.6%; the rate of children and students from 6 to 15 years old is 23.6%.

In addition, the number of teachers and instructors meeting the requirements of teaching swimming to children in the area at schools is 1,193 people. Thus, every teacher is responsible for 428 students at primary and secondary levels.

The third reason is that the attention of local authorities and schools has not really been given priority or given close attention to helping children in the work of preventing accidents, injuries and drowning, especially in teaching swimming.

The fourth reason is the coordination of departments, branches, political and social organizations, between families, schools and localities in the work of preventing and combating accidents, injuries and drowning in children.

We have not coordinated in propagating closely to reality; have not detected and assessed children at risk of injury and drowning, and from there issued warnings. On the other hand, there are few recreational activities for children; have not prevented dangers in some locations when floods occur, leading to tragic deaths.

Director of Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Doan Hong Vu

The fifth reason is that the work of creating resources for this issue is still limited. In the past 2.5 years, the budget has only directly spent more than 16.6 billion VND on this work. Besides, the socialization of this field is still weak, so up to now, the whole province only has 216 qualified swimming pools, of which, there are 111 fixed swimming pools and 105 mobile swimming pools.

The sixth reason is that the staff working on children's work is still lacking and weak; there are no full-time staff working on children's work at the district and commune levels; the regime and allowances for the team of collaborators at the block, hamlet, village and commune levels are still low.