A GNA Feature by Albert Futukpor
Saboba (N/R), July 25, GNA – For many schoolchildren, the journey to school begins with hope. They put on their uniforms, shoulder their school bags and wave goodbye to their parents, who expect them to return home safely at the end of the day.
For some families, however, that farewell has become permanent because a river, lake or flooded pit stood between their children and the future.
The nation was plunged into mourning in June 2025 when seven students of Lawra Senior High School drowned in the Black Volta at Dikpe in the Upper West Region after the canoe transporting them capsized during a cadet excursion. Three others survived, but seven promising young lives were lost in a tragedy that Ministers of State and Members of Parliament described as avoidable.
Two years earlier, in May 2023, another tragedy occurred on the Densu River between Wiaboman and Faanaa in the Greater Accra Region. Eleven schoolchildren returning home after classes boarded a small canoe to cross the estuary. The canoe overturned, killing eight children, while only three survived.
Behind every statistic was an empty classroom seat, grieving parents and dreams that would never be fulfilled.
Although not every drowning involves children travelling to or from school, they continue to pay the highest price for unsafe water environments. On February 28, this year, three boys aged between 11 and 14 drowned in an abandoned illegal mining pit in the Western Region while swimming. The mother of two of the boys also died while attempting to rescue them, illustrating the dangers posed by unprotected water bodies.
Earlier, on November 12, 2021, nine students of Saint Charles Lwanga Junior High School drowned in the River Oti in the Saboba District of the Northern Region when two canoes carrying them collided and capsized while crossing from the Mwagbar bank to the Kpanjol bank, about 100 metres away.
The victims, who were Form One and Form Two students, had earlier crossed the river with 31 other students to harvest rice for their headmaster. One of the deceased students was a Togolese national.
These tragedies have become painfully familiar. They dominate headlines for a few days, attract condolences from political leaders, and then fade from public attention until another community is thrown into mourning.
A preventable crisis hidden in plain sight
Despite claiming hundreds of lives each year, drowning remains one of the country’s least discussed public health emergencies.
Speaking at a drowning prevention event in Accra in April this year, Mr Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, Deputy Minister for the Interior, said Ghana recorded an estimated 1,400 drowning-related deaths annually, making drowning a major public safety concern. Children and young people remain among the most vulnerable groups.
He said the figures underscored the urgent need for stronger national action to address drowning as both a public safety and national security priority.
Several factors explain why schoolchildren are particularly vulnerable.
In many riverine communities, crossing rivers by canoe is not an occasional activity but part of daily life. Children living on islands and isolated communities often have no alternative means of reaching school. Many canoes are overloaded, operated by untrained personnel, and lack basic safety equipment such as life jackets.
Abandoned illegal mining pits have also become death traps, while seasonal flooding creates temporary water bodies that attract children. Poor or non-existent fencing around dams and ponds further exposes children to danger.
Underlying these risks is one glaring reality: most children in the country are never taught how to swim or survive in water. Unlike literacy and numeracy, water safety has received little systematic attention within the educational system.
The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies children and young people as accounting for more than half of global drowning deaths and recommends teaching school-age children swimming and basic water safety skills as one of the most effective preventive measures.
According to a WHO publication released in May this year, about 300,000 people die from drowning globally each year. Children under five account for nearly one-quarter of those deaths.
The publication notes that drowning is the fourth leading cause of death among children aged one to four years and the third leading cause among those aged five to 14 years, with 92 per cent of drowning deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.
After every tragedy, familiar promises
Every major drowning tragedy in Ghana follows an almost predictable pattern.
Government officials, Members of Parliament, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives and traditional leaders visit bereaved families, express condolences, promise investigations and assure the public that measures will be introduced to prevent future occurrences.
Following the Lawra SHS tragedy, Parliament devoted time to statements mourning the students and describing the incident as preventable. Members called for improved safety measures for communities that depend on river transport.
Presenting a statement in Parliament on July 2, 2025, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak, Minister for the Interior, announced measures to prevent similar incidents, including regular sensitisation of canoe owners and operators, public education for residents along the Black Volta Basin, maritime safety education for students and identifiable groups, and the distribution of life jackets to canoe operators.
He expressed the hope that the measures put in place by the Upper West Regional Security Council would prevent similar tragedies.
Mr Bede Ziedeng, Member of Parliament for Lawra, said the entire municipality had been plunged into mourning and disclosed that he had engaged relevant institutions to distribute life jackets and intensify education on river safety.
Following the Wiaboman tragedy, authorities also recommended the provision of life jackets and intensified public education. In June this year, the Ministry of Transport, through the Ghana Maritime Authority, launched the “No Life Jacket, No Travel” campaign to improve safety on inland waterways.
Speaking at the same drowning prevention event, Mr. Terlabi observed that recurring drowning incidents across different regions raised important public safety concerns. He said many of the incidents were predictable and preventable if evidence-based safety systems were implemented, and institutions coordinated their interventions in high-risk communities.
Similarly, following the 2021 Saboba tragedy, a nine-member Government delegation led by the then Deputy Minister of Education, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, visited the area to commiserate with the chiefs and bereaved families. The delegation included Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, then Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, COP Timothy Yoosa Bonga, Northern Regional Police Commander, Dr Peter Attafuah, Regional Director of Education, and a team of clinical psychologists and counsellors.
These responses are commendable, but they also raise difficult questions. Why do similar recommendations emerge after every tragedy without becoming permanent policy? If drowning is indeed predictable and preventable, as government officials acknowledge, recurring tragedies should compel the nation to move beyond expressions of sympathy to sustained action.
From reaction to prevention
The most effective response to drowning is prevention.
One practical intervention is the gradual introduction of swimming and water safety education into the basic school curriculum, particularly in communities located along rivers, lakes, and the coast. Such lessons need not produce competitive swimmers; rather, they should equip children with basic survival skills such as floating, remaining calm in water, recognising danger, using simple rescue techniques and seeking help safely.
Countries such as Australia and Finland have integrated swimming instruction into school programmes, recognising it as a life-saving skill rather than merely a recreational activity. This has contributed to improved water safety awareness among children.
Equally important is ensuring that communities where children routinely cross rivers have adequate life jackets and that their use becomes mandatory. Community volunteers, canoe operators, and teachers should also receive regular training in water safety and emergency response.
Government, development partners and corporate organisations could also support the establishment of community swimming centres or seasonal water safety camps in high-risk districts.
Although these measures may not eliminate drowning entirely, they can significantly reduce preventable deaths while fostering a culture of water safety across generations.
Saving lives must become national policy
Every schoolchild lost to drowning leaves behind more than a grieving family. The nation also loses a future teacher, doctor, engineer, farmer or leader whose potential is cut short beneath the water.
Ghana cannot continue treating each drowning as an isolated accident. The evidence points to a recurring national challenge that requires coordinated policy, sustained investment, and continuous public education.
Teaching children to swim, enforcing the use of life jackets, improving the safety of river transport and strengthening community awareness are practical investments in protecting the country’s greatest resource—its children.
Perhaps the greatest tribute Ghana can pay to every child lost to drowning is not another minute of silence but ensuring that no child again must risk his or her life simply to access education.
GNA
Edited by Eric K Amoh/Audrey DekaluÂ
Writer’s Email: [email protected]