World Drowning Prevention Day 2026
Unite to Turn the Tide is the theme of this year’s World Drowning Prevention Day on 25 July. Organised by the World Health Organization (WHO), the campaign's message is “Drowning prevention is not the responsibility of any one person, profession or sector. It depends on action across communities, workplaces, and governments – long before an emergency unfolds. It takes all of us.”
More than 300,000 lives a year are lost to drowning - 30 every hour - and almost a quarter of them are children under five. Globally, drowning is among the ten leading causes of death for children aged 5-14 years.
The Global Strategy for Drowning Prevention calls on every sector and every level of society to focus on one goal: Unite to reduce drowning by 35% by 2035.