A swimming competition was held in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday to encourage local students to learn how to swim and raise their awareness of drowning, in a country where about 2,000 children drown a year.

The Ho Chi Minh City traffic safety board cooperated with the municipal waterway traffic police division to organize the contest that included rescue drills at the Lam Son swimming pool on Tran Binh Trong Street in District 5.

The competition was joined by hundreds of students from middle schools in Thu Duc District, Binh Chanh District, Can Gio District, and some other locales.

This contest was intended for the students to practice swimming and for officials to assess their rescue skills when someone is in distress in the water.

From 9:00 am to 11:00 am, the students competed by swimming for two rounds in the 20m-long pool and showcased their rescue techniques with drowning dummies.

Swimming instructors were tasked with monitoring the students in order to ensure safety during the competition.

This swimming competition was a helpful playground for all students, Nguyen Vinh Phu, a competitor, said.

“This is an opportunity for us to practice swimming, saving ourselves, and rescuing others in the water,” Phu added.

It is a pity that many students have drowned in many provinces and cities in the past time, Lieutenant Colonel Phan Van Man, a chief from the municipal waterway traffic police division, said at the competition.

So it is essential that Ho Chi Minh City organize swimming contests to inspire students to learn how to swim, Man added.

His agency will call on schools and districts, especially Nha Be and Can Gio, where there are many canals and waterways, to encourage students to enroll in swimming courses, the police chief said.

About 2,000 children drowned in Vietnam each year in 2015-17, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs. 

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