Nearly all drownings in Hawke's Bay over the past four years were preventable, Water Safety New Zealand statistics show.
Water Safety New Zealand (WSNZ) is an 'umbrella' organisation for the water safety sector, which works to reduce the number of Kiwis who lose their lives or are injured in the water each year.
According to statistics provided to Hawke's Bay Today through their Drownbase tool, between January 2013 and this week, 20 people have lost their lives in waterways, and domestic environments around Hawke's Bay. WSNZ states 18 of these were preventable.
The organisation classes 'preventable' deaths as those which could have been prevented through rescue efforts of the water safety sector. They do not include fatalities classed as 'other' - those which occurred because of road, or air accidents, homicide, or suicide.
The 20 people who died in Hawke's Bay are among the 402 people who have drowned across the country in the same period - 303 drownings of which were considered preventable.
Over the past four years, fewer than a quarter of those who drowned in Hawke's Bay were female, with 16 men drowning.
This aligns with national statistics, which show drownings are more common amongst men than women - over the past three years men have made up around 80 per cent of the national drowning total.
Since the start of 2013 in Hawke's Bay there have been no drownings in lakes, marinas, or pools - either public or private. The highest losses of life have been at beaches, where only one of the nine deaths was considered preventable.
Offshore, there have been five drownings. Drains, rivers, and harbour bars each claimed one life in the past four years. The death of one person who drowned in an estuary was classed as preventable.
In domestic environments, there were two drownings, which both occurred in the bath.
Of the 20 people who died, six of these drowned through "accidental immersion", while four drowned while rescuing others. The other deaths occurred while the person was scuba diving, swimming, boating, or participating in land-based angling.
Of those who drowned over the past four years, the highest rate were with people of New Zealand European ethnicity of 40 per cent, or eight deaths.
Drownings among Maori people was the second highest, with seven drownings, followed by Asian people with three deaths.
Over the past four years six people under the age of 34 drowned - this included one toddler, and three people between the ages of 15 and 24.
The highest number of drownings occurred in the over 35 age group - 14 - with 42 per cent of these people over the age of 65.
The drowning statistics for this year specifically in Hawke's Bay are not yet available. However, this year 93 people have drowned across the country.
According to the organisation's previous Annual Drowning Reports, in 2015 three people drowned in Hawke's Bay, and there were six hospitalisations.
This was a decrease from 2014, when there were five fatal drownings, and three hospitalisations. There were the same number of drownings in 2013, with four hospitalisations.
The 2016 report has not yet been released.