Ghana records an estimated 1,400 drowning-related deaths annually, Mr Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, the Deputy Minister for the Interior, said on Tuesday.
He said the figure highlighted the urgent need for stronger national action to address drowning as a public safety and national security priority.
Mr Terlabi made the disclosure in Accra at the official launch of the Lifeguarding Initiative for Drowning Prevention in Ghana, held on the theme: “Drowning Prevention as a Public Safety and National Security Priority: The Critical Role of Lifeguarding.”
The event brought together stakeholders from the Ghana Navy, Fire, Police, and National Ambulance services, National Security, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Local Government Ministry, Traditional Authorities, Academia and management of the Labadi and Laboma beaches to highlight strategies for preventing drowning incidents and promoting water safety in Ghana.
Mr Terlabi said recurring drowning incidents across different regions and settings raised important questions about public safety and how national security should be understood.
He said such incidents had often been treated as isolated events, although many were predictable and preventable when evidence-based safety systems were put in place.
The Deputy Minister said high-risk areas could be identified, preventive measures introduced and institutions better coordinated to save lives.
He said the government was considering steps to review Act 537 to determine how drowning prevention could be more clearly reflected within the mandate of the Ghana National Fire Service.
Mr Terlabi said the process would involve consultation, planning, and coordination with stakeholders, including NADMO, to ensure clear responsibilities and sustained implementation.
He said at the centre of the new initiative was the strengthening of lifeguarding systems as a practical intervention to monitor high-risk areas, provide early response and support emergency rescue efforts.
The Deputy Minister said the initiative had already begun demonstrating results, as lifeguards trained under the programme had been deployed and had carried out successful rescues.
Professor Abdulgafoor Bachani of Johns Hopkins University, USA, said drowning remained one of the most preventable causes of death, making many of the losses especially painful.
He said the Ghana Lifeguarding Initiative was not only about deploying lifeguards, but about building stronger and coordinated systems for beach safety and drowning prevention led by Ghanaian institutions.
Prof Bachani said the programme sought to reduce drowning risk at public beaches through structured and reliable lifeguarding systems, with four key objectives.
These are the deployment of trained and certified lifeguards at high-risk beaches, strengthening prevention and emergency response systems, establishing national standards for lifeguarding and beach safety, and ensuring that the programme remained sustainable and Ghana-led.
The initiative was the result of deliberate planning and collaboration that began in April 2025 with beach assessments and stakeholder consultations to identify risk areas and operational gaps, Prof Bachani said.
A national co-creation workshop was later held in June 2025 to enable government agencies, municipalities, technical experts and partners to jointly design the intervention.
Prof Bachani said the National Coordination Board was subsequently established to provide governance and oversight, while agreements were reached on standards, training requirements and equipment needs.
Since December 2025, the plans had moved into implementation, with lifeguards recruited, trained and deployed.
He said 21 lifeguards had, so far, been deployed across three beaches in different municipalities, where they were already providing protection and conducting successful rescues.
Prof Emmanuel Nakua of the School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, said drowning was a devastating cause of premature death that robbed families of loved ones, communities of future potential and the nation of human capital.
He said children, young people, particularly males, and other vulnerable groups remained among the highest-risk populations.
Prof Nakua revealed that drowning did not occur only in seas and rivers, citing instances where children had drowned in household water containers and communities affected by floods and inland water accidents.
Although the burden was high, drowning had long remained under-recognised as both a public health and public safety priority.
Stakeholders present lauded the initiative, describing it as strongly aligned with their shared mandate of safeguarding lives across Ghana’s maritime and inland water domains.
They pledged support for the programme, noting that proactive lifeguarding and public compliance with safety measures would help reduce preventable deaths and ease pressure on emergency response services.
The stakeholders also pledged their commitments to strengthening water rescue capacity, intensifying public education on water safety, improving data collection, and collaborating to implement national drowning prevention strategies.
The National Coordinating Board for Drowning Prevention was inaugurated at the event to oversee the implementation of the initiative and strengthen collaboration among relevant institutions.
Lifesaving and operational equipment were also presented to the lifeguards to support their work at the beaches.
The items included lifebuoys, rescue floatation devices, marker buoys, megaphones, flashlights, communication equipment and other essential beach safety tools for surveillance, crowd control and emergency response.
