Brent Eastwood: Water safety initiative proving its worth

Whangārei Heads School students practising floating with an arm raised in a lifejacket as part of the WaterSafe Programme. Photo / Supplied

It's been hard not to miss the headlines over the past month about the appalling number of drownings across the country so far this summer – from all reports, it appears it is the worst in 40 years.

And unfortunately, Northland has not been spared either. With our massive coastline on both sides of the region as well as a plethora of lakes, rivers and harbours, Northland is an absolute mecca for water recreation. While this is fantastic for most Northlanders, who love to recreate in, on, under and around the water every summer, it can be deadly if proper precautions are not taken and assessment of risks completed.

Added to that is the huge "invasion" of Aucklanders over the busy summer season, many of whom are not familiar with the conditions that exist on our waterways.

That's one of the reasons that Sport Northland has been operating the Northland Water Safety Programme for so long – in fact, it first started in 1997 as the Top Energy Water Safety Programme in the Far North, and was later extended to Kaipara and Whangārei when Water Safety NZ and Northland DHB came onboard as funders.

The principal aims of the programme are to improve the fundamental swimming skills, water safety awareness and associated survival skills for primary and intermediate school-aged children across Northland. Thanks to the fantastic funding partnerships in place, the programme is offered free to primary and intermediate schools so as to provide teachers with the confidence to deliver these skills once the programme instructors leave.

The goal is to achieve zero preventable drownings and reduce the number of hospitalisations due to near-drownings for Northlanders, through embedding water safety skills as a life skill to our tamariki.

Given the above, it was heart-warming to see one of our Northland Water Safety kaiārahi, Megan McDermott, receive feedback in January from the mother of a student that she taught the programme to last year as follows:

"Hey Megan, I thought I would share that we were at Ruakākā on Monday for a late afternoon swim, kids having fun being dumped by waves, when one young boy not that far from us got pulled out on a boogie board in a rip. Shiree with boogie board and Sam without swam to help him. They managed to get to him and Shiree got him back but Sam got stuck in the rip. By this stage, I was in the water trying to get Sam, and with help from others they got him in, you know what he said, 'I remember what Megan said and when I got tired I floated on my back, went with the rip and put my arm up in the help position and I knew someone would come help.' So this is a big thank you to you for your swim safe coaching".

Whangārei Heads School students practising floating with clothes as part of the WaterSafe Programme. Photo / Supplied

Says Megan in response: "When I received this message, it really was a feel-good moment, this is why I do what I do. If I can help to save one child, one person from drowning, it all makes it worth it."

Sport Northland, Water Safety NZ, Top Energy and Northland DHB all believe that education is the key to keeping our whānau safe in and around the water – like Sam, let's hope our Northland tamariki can use these lessons from the programme when they need to and take them through to adulthood so that the needless drownings can reduce over time.