Any life is precious. School children’s lives are precious. Anyone who drowns can die within a few minutes. It takes around two minutes underwater for an adult to lose consciousness, and between 30 seconds and two minutes for a small child to die. This is general knowledge and not rocket science. But it seems Sri Lankans do not have this small part of basic general knowledge. We talk about drowning.
Day before yesterday four schoolboys drowned while bathing in the Ma Oya in Alawwa while another student was rescued and hospitalised. According to the Police, a group of five boys were bathing in the river when the incident occurred.
One of the boys has been rescued by residents in the area and admitted to hospital. However, the other four have been pronounced dead. The drowning victims were Grade 9 students of a school in the Polgahawela area.
Almost every night we can watch at least one incident of drowning that happens here in Sri Lanka during television news. The most pathetic situation is they do not know first aid and how to save lives. It seems Sri Lankans are not aware of even simple facts on drowning and first aid.
Almost every day someone or few drown and most of the time at least one person dies from drowning. Both parents and children are not aware of life-saving jackets and never use them. There is no point in talking about youth because they are one group of most ignorant citizens in Sri Lanka. Drowning is a pride for them and wearing a life saving jacket is a shame. This shows their level of education. No Sri Lankan asks for life saving jackets before entering into dangerous activity connected to water and therefore no one cares to provide life saving jackets except armed forces.
In rural areas nowadays parents do not have any control over their teenage children and ignorant, stupid and illiterate teenagers always step into dangerous waters without knowing how to swim and without a life saving jacket. They at least do not use a used tire.
On the other hand, parents should teach their children about their friends. The parents should teach their children how to swim and also the danger of certain friends they associate with. A few years ago two schoolboys just came home and stayed as nothing happened after two of their friends drowned. They hid the clothes of the victim and went home as nothing happened. Usually it takes a long time for teenagers to understand the real motivations of their own friends and by the time they understand them, it is too late and they have already said goodbye to life. Therefore it is the responsibility of the parents to teach their children about the wickedness of some of their friends who challenge them to do risky things.
First of all parents should teach their children life skills such as swimming before teaching them dancing, music, elocution, etc. First of all the child should save his/her life to stay alive and learn all the other things.
Then comes Sri Lankans’ fake desire to swim whenever they see a river, tank, waterfall, etc. If we analyse this, we can very clearly see that it is not the desire to have fun or relax. It is totally something else. Those ignorant, stupid and illiterate people very clearly see and read red notices put on display by relevant authorities prohibiting swimming in certain places in the country and abroad. But they just pretend that they did not see them. It is because those stupid people want to show their friends, girlfriends and the entire world that they are brave and talented. Only Sri Lankans are suffering from this ‘disease’ and no foreigner has this ‘disease’ which is deadly. Certain wicked individuals use such occasions in order to put the lives of their ‘friends’ in danger.
We can say it is all right if adults put their own lives in risk due to various reasons but teenagers and children should not be allowed to die in dangerous waters due to the ignorance of their parents, teachers and adults. Giving children swimming lessons is more important than teaching them anything else. The other important fact is the availability of life saving jackets in all relevant places and educating the public on using them in all required occasions. No media institution comes forward with teaching swimming to children and adults because they cannot earn money by doing such a thing.
The other most important factor is teaching the public how to give first aid to a drowning victim. It can save many lives. Maybe a television channel can come forward to launch such a project. Victims of drowning have most likely suffered asphyxial cardiac arrest; therefore, rescue breathing as well as chest compressions are indicated as opposed to compression-only resuscitation for cardiac arrest. Unfortunately most of the Sri Lankans do not have any idea what Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is. Therefore they never do it or do it in the wrong way putting the victim in more danger. It is high time Sri Lankan people, especially parents, pay attention to save lives.
