Faced with the complicated developments of child drowning, especially during the hot season and summer vacation, Dak Lak province is implementing many solutions to minimize accidents, according to VNA.
At the grassroots level, drowning prevention and control is concretized by models suitable to actual conditions. Chu Van An Primary School (Cuor Dang commune) has 852 students, 100% of whom are ethnic minority students, maintaining the "swimming illiteracy eradication" program since 2021.
Grade 4 and 5 students learn to swim 2 sessions/week outside of official hours; after nearly 5 years, nearly 1,000 children have learned to swim. The school also strengthens reminding students not to voluntarily go to rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes.
In Dray Bang commune, where there are more than 6,100 children aged 6 to 14, the commune police force coordinated with the youth union to organize training and propaganda for about 2,500 students. The content focuses on identifying dangerous areas, causes, consequences of drowning and situations handling skills, first aid. Activities such as organizing swimming tournaments and free swimming lessons during the summer are also being implemented to improve skills for children.
According to statistics, from 2021 to the end of May 2025, Dak Lak recorded 245 children dying from drowning; in 2025 alone, there were 32 cases. From the beginning of 2026 to now, there have been 14 cases, causing 18 students to die, and some cases causing 2-3 children to die at the same time.
The causes are identified as coming from both environmental and management factors. Many families are in difficulty, parents go to work far away, lack time to supervise their children. A part of parents are still subjective. Meanwhile, the area has many rivers, streams, ponds, and irrigation dams, posing risks, especially in the dry season when the demand for swimming and playing in the water increases but lacks barriers and warnings.
Faced with this situation, the provincial health sector innovated communication work by region, age and time; strengthened training for swimming teachers and coaches; mobilized community resources. At the same time, advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue Directive 08/CT-UBND dated May 23, 2025 on strengthening the prevention and control of child drowning and researching policies to support victims.
The education sector identifies teaching swimming as a long-term solution, is developing a plan to bring swimming into schools, and at the same time mobilize resources to invest in facilities. However, the whole province has about 550,000 children aged 6 to under 16 years old; with a cost of about 700,000 VND/child, the total cost of teaching swimming is estimated at over 500 billion VND - a large number, requiring strong socialization.
Reality shows that drowning can be prevented if families, schools and authorities coordinate closely. To achieve sustainable effectiveness, localities need to continue to remove "bottleneck points" in awareness, environment and resources, thereby protecting children's safety.
