Bloomberg Philanthropies has already invested a total of $104 million over the years via its ... [+] Initiative to Prevent Drowning to support such drowning prevention interventions in Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Uganda and Viet Nam as well as 10 states in the U.S. with higher numbers of drowning deaths: Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma and Texas. (Photo: Courtesy of Bloomberg Philanthropies)Courtesy of Bloomberg PhilanthropiesHeres another episode of Things You Can Accomplish When You Actually Work Together To Use Science To Solve a Major Problem. The World Health Organization with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies published its first-ever report on drowning prevention that brought to the surface a major success story. As of last year, the rate of drowning deaths across the world has gone down by 38% since 2000. Although theres still more work to do as the average number of drownings per hour remains above 30, this drop didnt occur by accident so to speak. It happened after the WHO, Bloomberg Philanthropies, different national governments and various local organizations got together to use that thing called science to help reduce drowning.The significant decline in drowning deaths since 2000 is great news and proof that the simple, practical interventions that WHO recommends work, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, the WHO Director-General, said in a statement. Still, every drowning death is one death too many, and millions of people remain at risk. This report contains crucial data for policy-making and recommendations for urgent action to save lives.Implementing Evidence-Based Interventions To Prevent Drowning DeathsBy simple, practical interventions, the WHO Director-General was referring to evidence-based interventions such as:Installing barriers to prevent child access to water: Because little kids by themselves and water dont often mix well. Ive described for Forbes previously how drowning has been the leading cause of deaths among young children.Providing of safe places away from water for pre-school children: The youth may not be always well served by water with nearly half of those dying from drowning being under 29 years of age and a quarter being less than five years of age.Teaching school-aged children basic swimming water safety and safe rescue skills: A Red Cross survey from a decade ago found that 61% of children didnt have basic swim safety skillsTraining people in rescue and resuscitation: Naturally, when someone is drowning, you dont everyone around to go, Umm, what do we do?Strengthening public awareness on drowning: Many people may not be aware of how much a risk drowning or the magnitude of the drowning problem, such as around 300,000 people dying by drowning in just one year, 2021.Setting and enforcing safe boating, shipping and ferry regulations: According to the American Boating Association, drowning has been the reporetd cause of death in 75% of fatal boating accidents in the U.S.Improving flood risk management: Floods bring water where its not supposed to be.Bloomberg Philanthropies has already invested a total of $104 million over the years via its Initiative to Prevent Drowning to support such drowning prevention interventions in Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Uganda and Viet Nam as well as 10 states in the U.S. with higher numbers of drowning deaths: Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.Part of these efforts has been to raise more awareness of drowning, explained Becky Bavinger, who works on the public health team at Bloomberg Philanthropies. There is the misconception that drowning is not preventable an act of God.The Majority Of Downing Deaths Occur In Low and Middle Income CountriesWhile many of the best things in life may be free, that still doesnt necessarily always apply to safety, health and public health measures. The aforementioned interventions do require investment to implement before the benefits and potential savings can be realized. Thats why it shouldnt be surprising that people in lower resource settings have higher risks of drowning. In fact, nine out of every 10 drowning deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries. Plus, such countries are low and middle income often because they have the misfortune of being situated in less favorable and harsher environments. Torrential rains, flooding, turbulent water and other such conditions do make navigating in and around water more treacherous.It also isnt super surprising that progress in reducing drowning deaths has been uneven across the world. While the WHO European Region experienced a 68% drop in such deaths from 2000 to 2021, the WHO African Region saw only a 3% drop during the same time period. The WHO African Region continued to have the highest rate of any region at 5.6 deaths per 100 000 people.But the success stories of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative to Prevent Drowning to date suggest that many of the challenges that LMICs face can be overcome. For example, in Bangladesh, Bloomberg Philanthropies has helped support community childcare for over 50,000 children across the country. And in Viet Nam, since 2019, it has worked with the government to offer survival swimming classes to children. This has already helped over 28,000 children across 13 provinces pass a survival swimming course.The Lack Of Data And National Strategies On Drowning DeathsOne continuing problem with drowning prevention is the you-dont-know-what-you-dont-know problem. Many locations dont even know enough about the surrounding risk factors that they may have and the causes of past drownings. In fact, they may not even know how many drowning deaths have occurred. Theyve lacked data. And making decisions without proper data can amount to guessing.Bavinger emphasized that its not enough to simply know the number of drowning deaths and the approximate age and sex of the victims: Basic demographics are not the fully story. We often dont have know the underlying circumstances. Therefore, a major part of the Initiative to Prevent Drowning has been to increase and bolster data collection and analysis efforts.Another continuing problem has been the dearth of national strategies to prevent drowning. In the European Region, 45% of countries have some kind of national strategy or plan to prevent drowning. Thats not a great number but still higher than the 15% number for the African Region. It will be important to match up the policies with the burden," Said Bavinger. She went to say that the majority of countries have no policy of fencing around swimming pools and only a minority have have swimming and national swimming training as part of their curricula.Drowning continues to be a major public health issue, but progress is possible, particularly if governments work with strong partners at the local level, Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, and 108th mayor of New York City, said in a statement.Climate Change May Raise The Risk Of Drowning DeathsClimate change can lead to more extreme weather events, which in turn could lead to greater drowning ... [+] risk. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)Getty ImagesAlthough things seem to be going in the right direction, theres one big global thing thats going in the wrong direction: climate change. Climate change has been leading to all sorts of changes that may increase the risk of drowning. Climate change can lead to more extreme weather events, rain getting disrupted, flash flooding and other things, Bavinger explained.Bavinger went on to talk about the need to strengthen weather alerts and make sure that they are up-to-date. After all, the words torrential rains and lets go swimming dont typically go well together. Increasing public awareness of the weather will grow increasingly important with climate change, especially with More people turning to water for recreation, which is understandable but means increased risk, as Bavinger described. She mentioned how the migration of people around the world can change the risk situation as well.Another big concern is whats happening in Washington, DC, right now. Who knows what longterm negative impact the Trump Administrations plan to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO will have? The same applies to the dismantling of USAID and cuts in support for other government agencies that help facilitate international collaboration and work.Continuing Work To Prevent Drowning DeathsSo, while past work has helped bring the problem of drowning more to the surface and result in the aforementioned drops in the rates of drowning deaths, the world is certainly not out of the water yet. Things have been improving and getting there, said Bavinger. [Bloomberg Philanthropies] is committed through 2027, $60 million to work in high burden countries. Increased cooperation across the globe would help significantly. A United Nations General Assembly resolution in April 2021 did declare July 25 each year to be World Drowning Prevention Day to help further raise awareness of this problem and foster collaborative work. Any set of deaths that could have been prevented can end up having reverberating effects across many different people, sectors, communities and countries often in unexpected ways. Not realizing this and neglecting the value of global cooperation could leave everyone under water in more ways than one.