With mortality from preventable diseases in retreat, the high risk of death by drowning has come to the fore. In fact, proportionate to population, more children die from drowning in Bangladesh than in any other country. Analysts fear that with climate change, extreme weather patterns, frequent flooding and rising sea levels, the risk of drowning is increasing in this land of massive rivers, deltas, rice paddies and ponds.
In response, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and its partners have been teaching Bangladeshi children to swim in order to save their own lives - and the lives of others.
UNICEF has started several training programmes in the country with the help of international partners like the Australia's Royal Life Saving Society, which sends over instructors to give advanced training to the Bangladeshi swimming teachers. Since it began in 2005, the programme has taught over 30,000 children aged between four to 10 years and intends to further the programme. According to UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh Carel de Rooy, "This is very relevant for Bangladesh; some estimates are that if the sea levels were to rise over the next century by one metre, a third of Bangladesh could come under water, and hence we have planned to pre-empt the dangers for another five to seven years down the road. "
So far, 35,000 Bangladeshi children have been taught to swim, and many have learned life-saving techniques. They're told not to risk leaping into the water themselves to save a drowning friend or family member, but rather to use a stick or pole to rescue the drowning child without placing themselves at risk.
UNICEF Bangladesh hopes such lessons help to ensure that the country's high number of drowning deaths will become a thing of the past, just as other causes of child mortality have been reduced.
In addition to providing swimming classes to the children, Bangladeshi swimming instructors are also trained by the group with one moto - "Every child that you teach to swim, is a child that will not drown." These swimming instructors are expected to go back to their villages and train the local children.
With no swimming pools in villages, children are taught how to swim in murky ponds ringed by bamboo frames for safety. However, Bangladeshi experts are happy with the cliché, ‘Something is better than nothing.'
"Death from drowning is really a big issue for Bangladesh. But if we taught a baby to swim, or even stay afloat, for 90 seconds, we would save a life," says the report of the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB).
Local community swimming instructors are also happy at the positive outcome of the programme and think that the teaching can be beneficial in the future, saving the children from the deathly clutches of water and providing them a vaccine against death so that they do not die because of drowning.
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