WHO Launches PROTECT Drowning Prevention Package

The World Health Organization has launched the WHO PROTECT drowning prevention package, a new resource designed to help governments strengthen policies, laws and systems that reduce drowning.

Published on 23 July 2026, ahead of World Drowning Prevention Day, the package brings together seven connected areas of action under the acronym PROTECT.

Around 300,000 people die from drowning worldwide each year.

Although most drowning deaths are preventable, many countries do not yet have the policies, legislation, coordination or governance arrangements needed to manage water-related risks consistently.

The WHO announcement launching the seven PROTECT strategies describes the package as practical, evidence-informed guidance for governments and communities.

It moves drowning prevention beyond isolated campaigns and individual interventions. Instead, it encourages countries to consider how infrastructure, rescue capability, occupational safety, water transport, education, child safeguarding and emergency preparedness work together.

What is the WHO PROTECT drowning prevention package?

Its full title is Seven Strategies to Prevent Drowning: Technical Package for Policy-makers.

The 88-page WHO document is primarily intended for policy-makers working across government and related sectors. It supports countries in developing, implementing and strengthening policies that make interaction with water safer.

The package is designed to be adapted to national circumstances.

It can be used alongside existing work in:

Public health
Education
Maritime and transport safety
Occupational safety
Tourism
Child safeguarding
Disaster-risk reduction
Climate resilience
Sustainable and economic development

PROTECT is not a certification scheme, training qualification or single international operating standard.

It is a policy and implementation resource that helps countries examine whether their laws, responsibilities and public-safety systems address the main causes and settings of drowning. WHO provides the publication and supporting information through its dedicated PROTECT technical-package page.

How PROTECT relates to the Global Strategy

PROTECT supports the wider Global Strategy for Drowning Prevention, published in November 2025 through the WHO-hosted Global Alliance for Drowning Prevention.

The Global Strategy establishes the broader direction for coordinated drowning-prevention action. It calls for stronger alignment between global, regional, national and local efforts, clearer shared goals and interventions adapted to local needs.

PROTECT translates that direction into seven practical policy areas. In simple terms:

The Global Strategy sets the shared direction.
PROTECT helps governments identify the policy areas through which that direction can be implemented.

The two resources should therefore be read together rather than treated as competing strategies.

What does PROTECT stand for?

The seven letters represent:

P: Physical infrastructure
R: Rescue and resuscitation
O: Occupational safety
T: Transport safety
E: Education in basic swimming and water safety
C: Child-care systems and safeguarding
T: Threat preparedness

Together, these areas create a systems approach to drowning prevention.

P: Physical infrastructure

The first area considers how infrastructure and the built environment can reduce exposure to water hazards.

Depending on the local setting, this may involve:

Barriers around wells, pools and open water
Safer water crossings
Secure domestic water storage
Controlled access to hazardous locations
Safer waterfront design
Improved warning and access arrangements

The principle is to prevent people entering dangerous situations wherever reasonable, rather than relying solely on signs or rescue after an incident has begun.

Infrastructure decisions can involve local government, planning authorities, housing, transport, utilities, tourism operators and private landowners.

R: Rescue and resuscitation

The second area addresses the ability of bystanders and professional responders to recognise an emergency, carry out a safe rescue and begin effective resuscitation.

This may include:

Public education on raising the alarm
Safe rescue methods
Trained lifeguards
Accessible rescue equipment
First-aid and resuscitation capability
Emergency communications
Competent professional responders
Coordination with medical services

Prevention must include readiness for the occasions when physical controls, supervision or safer behaviour do not prevent an incident.

Rescue capability should be appropriate to the environment. A swimming pool, public beach, river, marina and offshore vessel each present different hazards and response requirements.

O: Occupational safety

Millions of people work on, beside or above water.

This includes fishers, seafarers, ferry crews, port personnel, tourism workers, watersports instructors, construction workers and emergency responders.

Occupational drowning prevention may require:

Safe systems of work
Appropriate lifejackets and protective equipment
Worker training and supervision
Vessel and equipment standards
Emergency procedures
Incident reporting
Regulatory oversight and enforcement

The inclusion of occupational safety is important for the Caribbean, where fishing, marine tourism, inter-island transport and other water-based work contribute significantly to livelihoods and national economies.

T: Transport safety

Water transport is essential to many island, coastal and river communities.

However, drowning risk increases where vessels are overloaded, poorly maintained or inadequately equipped, or where operators lack suitable competence.

Transport-safety measures may address:

Vessel construction and maintenance
Passenger limits
Lifejacket provision and use
Operator competence
Weather and voyage decisions
Communications and distress alerting
Passenger safety briefings
Regulatory inspection and enforcement

The WHO drowning fact sheet identifies effective regulation of boating, shipping and ferry activity as an important drowning-prevention measure.

For Caribbean states, water-transport safety may involve commercial vessels, ferries, fishing boats, excursion craft and informal transport operating between coastal communities.

E: Education in swimming and water safety

Learning basic swimming and water-safety skills can reduce vulnerability, particularly among children and communities with regular exposure to water.

Education may include:

Basic swimming ability
Floating and survival skills
Recognition of local hazards
Safe entry and exit
Lifejacket awareness
Raising the alarm
Safe methods of assisting another person
Understanding personal limits

Swimming lessons alone are not a complete drowning-prevention system.

Programmes must themselves be delivered safely, with competent instructors, suitable locations, effective supervision and clear safeguarding arrangements.

Education should also reach parents and carers, who make many of the decisions about when, where and under what conditions children enter the water.

C: Child-care systems and safeguarding

Young children can drown quickly and quietly in water around homes and communities.

Risks may include:

Swimming pools
Wells
Rivers and drainage channels
Water-storage containers
Uncontrolled shoreline access
Floodwater
Unsupervised play near water

PROTECT therefore includes child-care systems and safeguarding, rather than placing responsibility solely on children learning to swim.

Relevant measures may include active adult supervision, safer child-care provision, barriers around water, secure storage containers and clear safeguarding standards within swimming and water-safety programmes.

The responsibility for protecting young children rests with adults, service providers and public systems.

T: Threat preparedness

The final area addresses preparedness for floods and other multi-hazard emergencies.

Storms, flooding and extreme weather can expose entire communities to drowning risk, including people who would not normally consider themselves water users.

Preparedness may require:

Early-warning systems
Flood-risk mapping
Public information
Evacuation planning
Community preparedness
Trained rescue capability
Inter-agency coordination
Safer infrastructure
Post-event review and learning

Climate change, urbanisation and changing patterns of settlement and migration can alter how communities are exposed to water hazards.

Drowning prevention should therefore be integrated into wider disaster-management and climate-resilience planning.

Why PROTECT matters to the Caribbean

For Caribbean countries and territories, PROTECT brings together responsibilities that are often managed separately. Beach safety may sit with tourism, local government or private operators. Small-vessel safety may involve maritime administrations, coastguards, police and port authorities. Swimming education may involve schools, sports departments and community organisations. Flood preparedness may sit with disaster-management agencies.

Health services, emergency medical teams, fire and rescue services, search and rescue organisations and civil-society groups may all become involved when prevention fails.

The Pan American Health Organization’s drowning-prevention guidance similarly identifies drowning as a multisectoral issue involving health, education, transport, tourism and disaster-risk management.

PROTECT offers a shared structure through which Caribbean governments and stakeholders can examine:

Which agencies hold responsibility
Where policies or laws are missing
Whether incident information is reliable
Which groups face the greatest risks
Whether prevention programmes are reaching them
How emergency services coordinate
Whether local capability matches local hazards

The package is not a ready-made Caribbean policy. Each country or territory will need to assess its own laws, environments, institutions and resources. Its value lies in providing a common framework for that work.

Why a systems approach matters

The seven PROTECT areas are interconnected.

Swimming education will have limited effect if children remain exposed to uncontrolled water hazards. Rescue training cannot compensate for unsafe transport systems. Lifejackets cannot protect people if they are unavailable, unsuitable or not worn.

Emergency response may also be delayed if communications, agency responsibilities and casualty handover arrangements have not been agreed.

A stronger drowning-prevention system connects prevention, preparedness, response and learning.

Depending on the country, that may involve:

Health
Education
Maritime affairs
Transport
Tourism
Labour and occupational safety
Disaster management
Local government
Police, defence and fire services
Search and rescue organisations
Community and civil-society groups

The WHO Global Status Report on Drowning Prevention 2024 provides a broader benchmark for examining progress and gaps in recognised prevention measures.

PROTECT and World Drowning Prevention Day 2026

The package was released immediately ahead of World Drowning Prevention Day on 25 July.

The official World Drowning Prevention Day 2026 campaign uses the theme Unite to Turn the Tide and promotes the Global Strategy’s call for coordinated action.

PROTECT gives governments and stakeholders a practical structure around which that cooperation can develop.

It moves the conversation beyond awareness alone and towards the policies, investment, accountability and delivery systems needed to reduce drowning over time.

Key WHO resources

The main WHO resources for understanding PROTECT and its wider context are:

How CMSA’s work aligns with PROTECT

The Caribbean Maritime Safety Association is not presenting itself as a national implementing authority for PROTECT.

Formal adoption and implementation will require government leadership, appropriate policy decisions and cooperation across the responsible sectors.

CMSA is, however, already active in areas that align with several PROTECT themes.

Rescue and resuscitation

CMSA supports lifesaving, first-aid, casualty-response and responder development. This contributes to stronger recognition, rescue and immediate care when prevention measures fail.

Education in swimming and water safety

Through the Making Waves Project, CMSA supports access to swimming and practical water-safety education in Antigua and Barbuda.

The programme aims to develop not only swimming ability, but better hazard recognition, safer decision-making and greater confidence around water.

Occupational and transport safety

CMSA provides maritime safety and responder training relevant to seafarers, vessel crews, marine operators and organisations working on or around water.

This supports competence, safer operating decisions and improved emergency preparedness.

Threat preparedness

CMSA’s work in maritime search and rescue, land search and rescue, responder competence and disaster preparedness contributes to regional capability for water-related emergencies.

Further information is available through CMSA’s training and certification programmes.

A framework for future Caribbean action

PROTECT gives governments and organisations a clearer structure for examining drowning prevention as a complete system.

For CMSA, it provides a useful framework against which existing programmes can be reviewed and future priorities considered.

It also reinforces the need for cooperation between:

Governments and public authorities
Schools and education providers
Maritime and tourism operators
Emergency and rescue services
Community organisations
Public-health bodies
Funders and development partners

No single organisation can deliver every part of PROTECT.

However, each organisation can identify the areas within its responsibility and strengthen the contribution it makes.

CMSA welcomes constructive engagement with governments, emergency services, schools, maritime and tourism operators, community organisations and prospective partners seeking to develop practical, evidence-informed drowning prevention across the Caribbean.

World Health Organisation launches the PROTECT Drowning Prevention Guidance Safety