BATU KAWAN, May 31 — The Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) is conducting a water safety programme campaign to increase awareness and prevention to reduce the number of drowning deaths.
Deputy Minister of Local Government Development Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said the water safety campaign will emphasise two main elements, which are education and enforcement.
“Awareness (drowning prevention) is to avoid drowning incidents and, at the government level, KBS (Ministry of Youth and Sports) is encouraging swimming and training for low-income families.
“For the fire brigade … prevention is more effective but if it happens, we need to render help onsite to save (victims) before the fire brigade arrives to give further assistance,” he said today.
He was met after officiating the 2023 Southeast Asian Countries Drowning Prevention Capacity Development Workshop and Conference, which was also attended by JBPM deputy director-general of Development Datuk Nor Hisham Mohammad.
The three-day workshop and conference from May 29 was attended by 250 participants from various agencies, including 23 international participants from 13 countries including Singapore, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Switzerland, to establish a data centre for joint research and evaluation.
Meanwhile Akmal Nasrullah said JBPM recorded 1,595 calls regarding drowning cases from 2018 to 2022 with an average of 319 calls per year; while 1,341 drowning cases were recorded for the four-year period with an average of 268 deaths every year.
