The Irish Water Safety - English

During the period of 1988 to 2012, The Irish Water Safety (2018) recorded all drowning accidents in Ireland, and found that 79% of the overall victims were male. According to WHO (2019), males are more likely to die from drowning than females due to riskier behavior such as being intoxicated just before swimming alone, or boating. Additionally, 79% of the drowning occurred locally which means that the victim had “[…] listed residential address within a relatable distance of drowning venue/location, usually within the same county; therefore, a potential familiarity between the victim and the drowning venue exists” (The Irish Water Safety 2018, p.7). People are most likely to drown within their home county (80%).

According to Roger Sweeney of Water Safety Ireland (2021) around 40,000 people live fewer than 100 meters from the coast and two million people live within 5km of the coast. Ireland has over 3,000 km of coastline but it also has over 12,000 lakes of all sizes covering an area of 1,200 square kilometers and the five longest rivers measure over 1,000kms in length. These waters are an amazing resource, yet an average of 115 people lost their lives to drowning in them every year over the last decade. Those 10 drownings per month are a significant public health issue. However, last year, Ireland had 76 drownings, which is the lowest since 1936. This is significantly lower than the previous year, 2019, when 105 people drowned.

Furthermore, the Irish Water Safety (2018) has identified that there is a peak in drowning accidents during the third quarter of the year, which coincides with summer-related activities such as bathing and surfing. However, the majority of drownings did not occur in the coastal region, but inland, which “consists of fresh water: rivers, canals, lakes, ponds and quarries, and also those venues listed under other inland, that of bog hole, drain, slurry pit and well/tank or reservoir, as well as wim pools (domestic, hotel, public, school and sports centre)” (The Irish Water Safety 2018, p.12). Inland drownings take place inland in 62% of the cases recorded, with the highest percentage of mortality, 37%, located in rivers.

The major circumstances of drowning recorded during this time according to the Irish Water Safety were bathing (any water submersion), noating (as leisure pursuit), walking (river or coastal), fishing (commercial and leisure, from boat and from shore) and road traffic accidents. Yet, 27% of the drowning victims

had some level of intoxication that led to reduced water safety awareness. Therefore, it is clear that a national water safety awareness is paramount to reducing drowning victims, especially among young men. This project will provide possible solutions to the issues previously stated targeting the target consumer and afterwards, evaluating those efforts in their efficacy.

Thus, our main target audience is composed of young irish people, aged between 16 to 25 years old. However, since most drowning victims are male (80%), we decided to focus on this specific target for our campaign, in order to give them better information about this subject, and to make them aware of the danger that can represent water to them. This will be aimed at highschoolers, but mostly university students. It is also important to take into consideration the fact that ⅓ of drownings may be linked to alcohol consumption.

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