Children drowning is a public health crisis, especially in Africa's Great Lakes region
Floods in countries such as Mozambique (above), Uganda, Malawi and other Great Lakes countries take lives. Photo: Mike Hutchings/Reuters
Have you ever experienced the childhood ecstasy that comes with swimming, no matter where or how? Well, I did. It was so thrilling.
I used to enjoy swimming, but the agony of losing a younger brother to drowning and thereafter have lived with the trauma like many other siblings, parents and survivors across low and middle income countries.
In April this year, news from Malawi flooded international media reporting children aged one to 11 drowning while swimming in Kachule Dam in Mangochi District.
Eleven-year-old Allie Mwamandi from Chipande village drowned in the dam.
This is not the first time news from Malawi has surfaced in the global media. For example, in 2017 two children aged two and 10 drowned in Nkhotakota District.
According to World Health Organisation data published in 2020, death rates in Malawi stands at 2.3 per 100,000 of the population, with 458 drowning contributing 0.47% of total death.
Malawi's drowning cases are just a drop in the ocean compared to its neighbouring countries in the Great Lakes region, which includes Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
For instance, 'about hundred people, the majority of which are children, have drowned in the last two years' the Rwanda National Police reported.
Among the 100 people were three children who drowned in the city of Kigali.
Kenya lost 2000 people to drowning in 2024, Uganda nearly 3000 people and in Tanzania there are 3454 to 2486 deaths annually.
Such scattered drowning data reminds me of the unrecorded drowning of my younger brother, Bob Kizito, at the age of just eight in a pond.
Growing up our parents used to send us to fetch water at spring wells but in the vicinity were swamps and a muddy pond that we used to play and swim in.
One fateful Saturday afternoon Kizito got stranded in a muddy pond with water at his mouth level, his panicking body vertically submerged to the bottom.
That's how many children's lives have been lost and their families shattered — playing in unsafe areas. Lack of supervision of children has exposed thousands to drowning.
Drowning is not limited to unsafe swimming places like lakes, swamps, rivers, spring wells and ponds; many children (and adults) die in floods.
For instance, in Gisozi and Nyabugoyo suburbs children aged four and five were washed away while playing in a water channel in Rwanda.
In 2024, a child aged 10 was washed away by floods in Bwaise after heavy rainfall in Kampala.
A World Health Organisation report stated that about 300,000 people around the world drowned in 2024, and declared it a global crisis, with children being the most vulnerable.
Drowning is the fourth leading cause of death after lower respiratory infections, malaria and diarrhoeal disease among children aged one to four (24%). It is the third leading cause of death among children aged five to 14 (19%) and 12th among teenagers and youth aged 15 to 29.
It can take up to 15 minutes for a child to drown, not much time for them to be rescued. In Malawi, a two and half year old girl and her one-year-old sister drowned while crossing the Nansanto River.
Before policymakers and schools the duty falls on parents, guardians and local residents to supervise children whenever they are around water.
Teaching children how to swim and people how to perform CPR is essential to save lives.
Preschool children need safe places to play away from water and barriers should be installed to control access to water.
Flotation devices should be accessible to children, especially those living on islands and near lakesides.
A national drowning prevention plan is needed in all the countries, especially those which have large waterbodies in the Great Lakes region.
Robert Kigongo is a sustainable development analyst.
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