An op-ed entitled “Death by water” in The Daily Star (Bangladesh) drew attention to the scale and tragedy of child drowning in Bangladesh, and the efforts of groups including Synergos to end it:

[D]rowning, not malnutrition, is the single largest killer of children (aged one to five years) in Bangladesh. It claims the lives of 30 children (aged under five) every day and occurs within 20 metres of the home, especially when children are left unsupervised...

Recently, at a roundtable conference jointly organised by Synergos and Bangladesh ECD Network, the speakers expressed the need for increased government investments for early childhood care and development and for a range of ministries to work in coordination stewarded by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs. As the daycare has multiple benefits, including prevention of child drowning, the government can also consider integrating other services with it such as cognitive development, health, nutrition, disability screening, among others. Examples of integration can be drawn from the 4,000 Para Centres developed for children in the three districts of CHT.

Our country is approaching middle-income status and donor-supported projects are likely to decrease in number. Therefore, our government, together with the community and local private sector donors, needs to take more responsibility of nurturing our children—their safety, education, health and overall development. Thirty deaths a day may not sound much in a land of nearly 170 million, but then we are talking about nearly 11,000 preventable deaths of budding flowers ready to burst into bloom.