Background Globally, drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury/ death after traffic injuries and sudden deaths. As per the Global report on drowning- preventing, WHO (2014) – approximately 372000 people die from drowning (worldwide) every year.

Study objectives

1. To conduct a community based survey coastal area of Chennai .

   1. To estimate the drowning magnitude among population

   2. To identify the risk factors associated with drowning

   3. To gain an in-depth understanding of people’s perceptions of the causes of drowning and also to explore their concepts of prevention measures

Study design and sample size Cross sectional study of around 200 participants

Methodology A survey tool was prepared by group of experts

The identified/selected field surveyors were trained on the tool through online method. The project manager monitored the conduction of survey, compilation and cleaning of data. Analysis done by SPSS software

Results Survey in the Chennai coastal area included 230 individuals, among which 137 were males and 93 females. Majority used to visit beach with family and used to spend maximum 2 hours. Majority individuals do not check weather conditions or high tides before going to beach. 131 individuals who took part in survey didn’t know swimming. Majority doesn’t know to activate emergency services either. 181 had no experience of swimming in sea or oceans and 201 individuals have not received any life saving training. Majority has no knowledge about rip current. Among the participants, 25 had witnessed drowning incidents, in which 3 victims expired and 22 were rescued.

Discussion There is significant lack of knowledge among the population regarding drowning, it’s risk factors, activation of emergency response team, safety precautions, conditions of the water bodies and majority of the population doesn’t know swimming.

Conclusion Lack of knowledge and proper training has contributed to all the drowning incidents. Hence drowning incidents can be significantly reduced with proper training and educating the population.