Drowning is considered to be the second-highest cause of accidental death in Sri Lanka. On average, recorded drowning incidents show that 755 people drowned each year from 2016 to 2018 in Sri Lanka.
The drowning rate of the inland areas of the country is extremely high and the drowning count of the coastal areas during weekends meets this range. Consequently, the Sri Lankans also loses the opportunity of enjoying the splendid beauty of the coastal shore, which consists of 1340 km.
According to the Drowning Prevention Report Sri Lanka 2020, the recent census obtained in this regard, the prime reasons for such accidents have been identified as lack of water safety knowledge, negligence, ignorance, consumption of alcohol and lack of usage of safety equipment. Moreover, the general public is not aware of the safe places to enjoy their time during weekends using the coastal line of the country. As per the latest report published on drowning and drowning related deaths in Sri Lanka, the highest number of accidents is reported amongst the children between the ages of 1-14 (i.e. around 100 children per year) occurs in the country due to water accidents.