Call for action on drowning toll

The drowning toll over the Christmas break is just too high.

A series of drownings in Northland has prompted calls for more emphasis on water safety in schools which has been backed by the grandmother of one of those who died.

There have been five drownings in Northland waters since Christmas Day, with only one of those - Jahzel Porter, 11, who got caught in a rip at the mouth of the Waipu River - from the region.

Provisional drowning statistics for 2014 were released on Saturday, the same day a 54-year-old from Nelson died at Takou Bay, north of the Bay of Islands. Police had not released the dead woman's name at edition time as next of kin had not been informed.

Last year 12 people died in Northland waters, two fewer than in 2013, but there have been three suspected drownings already this year in Northland. Throughout the country 90 people died in 2014 which was down from 107 in 2013.

President of the Te Tai Tokerau Principals Association Pat Newman said there are kids not learning to swim at school because of cost and pressure on other parts of the curriculum.

"I think it's a priority thing," Mr Newman said. "It's as important as teaching kids how to cross the road."

There are schools that can not afford to keep pools open and struggle to meet the costs of taking kids to public pools for lessons, he said. Also, often schools did not think it was feasible to take time out of the day to be in the pool because there was increasing pressure inside of the classroom to keep kids up to standard.

While that was important, what was lacking was the same emphasis being placed on water safety, Mr Newman said.

Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Matt Claridge said learning how to teach swimming was almost non existent at most teaching colleges. Mr Claridge said there was a lack of uniformity around what was taught about water safety.

For example, the country is patchworked with different organisations, such as Sport Northland, that run water safety programmes. Because of Northland's climate and proximity to the water there was increased participation in water activity and therefore more incidences, Mr Claridge said.

"Northland typically has more people drowning per capita than any other region in the country."

Jahzel's grandmother Leanne Jackson said her moko's tragic death highlights the need for more children to be taught water skills.

Ms Jackson said Jahzel had never taken proper swimming lessons and she would like to see more children given swimming lessons and be given skills on how to stay safe at the beach.

"It would be good to see kids who have access to a beach learn surf lifesaving from when they are 5 years old. We need to get serious about teaching kids to swim - it is one of the most important things we can teach our children."