Introduction Injuries kill about 300 people each day and everyday 55 000 people suffer from non-fatally injury in Bangladesh. Drowning, suicide, road traffic injury is the top most causes of injury mortality. Barisal is the upmost drowning prone division in Bangladesh.

Aim To design a comprehensive drowning reduction project in the most drowning prone division.

Method A baseline survey among 400 000 populations and 7 qualitative studies conducted to explore current drowning context and drowning rate and to identify vulnerable groups in terms of drowning. The findings were shared with national and international drowning prevention experts, national policy makers and stakeholders in Barisal division and through a workshop some integrated drowning reduction intervention designed.

Result Baseline survey showed that children of 1–4 years are the most vulnerable in between 9 am to 3 pm and lack of children supervision and lack of water safety survival skills are the principle causes of drowning in post drowning cases, some traditional methods had been practiced for health seeking behavior, which contradicts the medical practices. With support of Village Injury Prevention Committee ‘Anchal’, community crèche, designed for hosting 1–5 year children to keep safe and also helped to develop early childhood stimulation. For 6–10 year old children, ‘SwimSafe’ implemented to teach survival swimming skill. ‘Community First Responder’ training, passive surveillance, awareness raising through community education and school safety messages are also being implemented. Relevant stakeholders have been identified and engaged through National Steering Committee and local stakeholder meetings. Responsibilities of some activities have shared with stakeholders. The project currently rollout in 3 sub districts in Barisal division.

Conclusion and policy implications Utilization of proven interventions and multiple stakeholder involvement are the principles of comprehensive drowning reduction project. If it is feasible and effective, then it could be scaled up in other divisions of Bangladesh.