Daniel Gerrard: Water Safety NZ chief executive says there are still massive gaps despite lower drowning numbers

Lower numbers of drownings are a blip and not yet a trend.

61 lives have been lost in water-related incidents this year – 26 percent down compared to the 10-year average.

Water Safety New Zealand says there needs to be more education in schools and a standardisation because each school is learning something different.

Chief Executive Daniel Gerrard told Mike Hosking there are still massive gaps.

“27 percent of eight-year-olds can’t even float for two minutes. That’s in a nice warm pool, you put them out in the difficult conditions – maybe a chop, maybe a swell – how long will people survive?”

He says there needs to be a consistent approach.

He says most schools are doing something, but there should be a greater alignment with international standards.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Son is here. Of course, warm temperatures this week, Thank
goodness about time. Anyway, we tend to get a little
bit angsty about swimming and drowning at this time of year.
So what a safety set to meet with the Sports minister?
They want a better water education program apparently what a
safety in New Zealand Boss Daniel Girard is. Whether it's
Daniel morning to you and Mike. Aren't they drownings down?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah? Absolutely, this is so far this year we're looking
at a twenty six percent reduction, but there we go
a point in time. This is definitely not a trend. Yet.
We want to celebrate the fact that people are obviously
making better choices and we want to highlight that fact
and share that with our minister and others.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
How gritty are is the data? And do you know
where they drown how old they are? Is there you
know whether there are patents to be seen there?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah? Absolutely. We've spent a lot of time and energy
around the data science and the analysis work and really
changing the shape of water safety in New Zealand so
that we are purely evidence based. We can now identify
where clearly things are going wrong, what people are doing
at that point in time. How long are they're doing
that activity to put them at risk? And what are

(01:05):
some of the things we can do to help prevent
and encourage people to make some different choices.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
How much of it's just playing. It's not that you
can or can't swim, it's just education, getting into a
drinking too much, all the weird stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, look, they are significant challenges. But the big thing here,
and the big thing that we're really trying to push,
is that there's a difference being able to swim, or
a child learning to swim in a nice warm swimming
pool with their cap on and their goggles and beautiful tiles,
to actually being out in open water. And our Day
is suggesting that twenty seven percent of eight year old

(01:38):
can't even float for two minutes. So that's in a
nice warm pool. You put them out in the difficult conditions,
maybe a chop, maybe a swell. How long can people survive?
We also see that forty percent of adults in a
self reporting survey say, actually out in open water, I'm
not that comfortable on that. Not that constant being able
to swim and move through the water got to give

(02:00):
the next generation, in particular, those basic aquatic skills, the
skills you need before you learn to swim to make
sure that you are actually able to keep yourself afloat
and then move on to the fantastic skill of learning
to swim and a lifelong of getting out and gathering
ki and having great time on our waters.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Where do you do it? Because you do. I did
it in the school pool, But a lot of schools
don't have pools anymore.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yes, schools, we believe are the cheapest and the easiest
place for this to occur. So the cheapest of all
versions is to have a passionate stuff. As we know
that school teachers are stretched every which way, but the
basic skills to be able to teach their students these
aquatic skills. So it's very very basic, straightforward stuff. If
you need to go to a council facility or other

(02:44):
places and use professionals to help you, that's where the
cost starts to mount up. But right now we believe
that the schools are the right place. Most schools are
doing something around aquatic education. We just want them to
align with some basic world leading research around competencies and
ages and stages of having the right skills at the
right age and then just rolling that out through through

(03:07):
this school life.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Good stuff, Dan, you appreciate up Daniel Girand, who's the
Water Safety New Zealand boss. For more from the mic
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