Water safety has taken the forefront of attention this week across Canada as the National Drowning Prevention Week aims for awareness.
The Lifesaving Society designates the third week of July to focus community and media attention on drowning prevention.
The regional awareness campaign is organized by the Alberta and Northwest Territories branch, and all affiliated organizations that run Lifesaving Society programs participate, including the Okotoks Aquatic Centre.
The week targets the five important water safety messages: swim with a buddy, don’t drink alcohol on a boat, wear a personal flotation device (PFD), know your limits, and stay within arms reach of children.
“Our staff is sharing those messages this week and reinforcing them with the lessons, and pools around the province are hosting events as well,” said Tanya Jones, Okotoks Recreation Centre aquatics operations co-ordinator. “On social media (#NDPW2019), it’s been really neat to see everything from Grande Prairie to Lethbridge and Medicine Hat to right on the border in Jasper doing the same events.
“It’s really nice to have a province wide message going out.”
Drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional death among Canadians under 60 years of age, according to the Lifesaving Society.
The Town of Okotoks encouraged residents to seek safe ways of escaping the summer heat this year in a statement at the beginning of Drowning Prevention Week, such as the Okotoks Recreation Centre.
Particular concerns addressed in the Town’s statement were the use of the Sheep River and the storm ponds.
Jones said there are unfortunately recent examples of the dangers of storm ponds after two toddlers drowned after entering a storm pond near Edmonton.
“We don’t tend to think of them as the same risk as we do a pool or another normal body of water, but they’re even more dangerous because we forget about them, we forget they’re there,” she said. “It’s actually one of the bigger statistics in the province, where we lose people in those unsupervised, unexpected areas.”
The Town statement warns that the storm ponds are not safe for play during any time of the year, as they are susceptible to changing water levels, and can have deep mud along the edges that can trap people and animals.
“As for the Sheep River, it looks beautiful, it’s so nice on a sunny, hot day, but we don’t know what’s under that water,” said Jones. “The depths in that river vary greatly in different places.”
With the water conditions being such an unknown—with changing currents, depths, speed, and debris—the Town strongly recommends not swimming or boating on the Sheep River.
“We’re still dealing with debris from 2013 and the flooding, and how that changed some of the underlying debris,” said Jones. “(Storm ponds and the river) are really not safe places to swim.”
Following the recent drowning of a young male—who was not a strong swimmer, according to his family—at the Highwood River last month, awareness of the natural bodies of water is fresh on the region’s mind.
Jones said it is a rising statistic across the country for immigrants to drown participating in Canadian sports, because they didn’t have the background water safety education, may not have known the risks, and no PFDs were present.
“People who are new to Canada want to come and want to participate in all the activities they see their Canadian cohorts participating in, but they have no background in water safety,” she said. “We forget how spoiled we are here in Canada that most of us, in some way, get water safety education.”
Jones said they were reaching out to some of the immigration settlement services to see what ways they can build those relationships and help new Canadians be water safe.
Basic swimming ability is a requirement of any meaningful attempt to eliminate drowning in Canada, according to the Lifesaving Society. The Swim to Survive program teaches the necessary skills to survive an unexpected fall into deep water.
The Okotoks Aquatic Centre offers swim lessons from the Lifesaving Society programs for all ages, said Jones, from six-months to 80 years plus, which incorporates water smart messaging.
Additionally, the centre offers leadership training, or the Bronze Programs, for youths and adults, which reinforce water rescue skills.
“They all talk about rescues and how to stay water safe, and how to keep your friends water safe while you’re out there,” she said. “If you own a cabin it may seem like a bit of overkill, but a Bronze Medallion is a great thing to have if you’re taking five or six kids out to your cabin, or you spend a lot of time on the water.”
She said the biggest tip to take away from National Drowning Prevention Week is to “watch you kids, not your phone.”
“It’s become kind of a disturbing trend,” she said. “The distractions of technology being right in our hands, it’s so easy to forget when you check Facebook, when you check that message, and your eyes get drawn in to your phone, rather than supervising.”
She said when supervising a group of children to make sure to assign one adult to be the primary supervisor, and to take breaks to stay fresh and alert.
Main messages
The main messages of the 2019 National Drowning Prevention Week are:
Drowning is preventable: Approximately 500 Canadians die in preventable water-related incidents annually. Even one drowning is one too many.
Watch me, not your phone: Always directly supervise children around the water—if you’re not within arms’ reach, you’ve gone too far.
Be Boat Smart – Wear a Lifejacket: Choose it. Use it. Always wear a lifejacket or PFD when in a boat.
Swim with a buddy: Make smart choices before going into or out on the water.
Know your limits: Alcohol consumption is a factor in almost 40 per cent of boating-related fatalities. Both alcohol and cannabis use impairs judgment, reflexes and balance. Stay sober when in, on, or around the water.
Be Water Smart all year round: You can save a life, yours and someone else’s. Take a learn-to-swim, lifesaving or first aid class today.
