The Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) is proud to be a part of the World Conference on Drowning Prevention and help combat this major epidemic.

Throughout Asia child drowning is estimated to exceed 300,000 deaths every year, or 1000 a day. In Bangladesh drowning kills more people aged 18 years and under than infectious diseases. Each year, approx. 17,000 children, or 48 per day, lose their lives to what is essentially a preventable accident.

Bangladeshi lives, especially in the rural areas, revolve around water. With climate change likely to increase the rate and severity of our annual floods and unfortunately the rate of drowning, the World Conference on Drowning Prevention is an important step in combating this surge.

Over the last five years, CIPRB has worked closely with Royal Life Saving Society - Australia (RLSSA) and The Alliance for Safe Children (TASC) to develop effective drowning prevention strategies and we look forward to exchanging ideas with our other international counterparts.

Together we hope to radically reduce the amount of lives lost to drowning not only in Bangladesh but throughout the world.