Thirteen-year-old student, Pauliasi Ratunawaqe was well-mannered and hardworking.
His mother Wati Taleimaitoga remembers him as a great helper who went out of his way to help her at home.
“Sometimes when there was no food, he would go out of his way to either dive for freshwater mussels or go to the farm to get food for the family.
Wherever he went, he would look out for anything to feed the family. Sometimes he would return home with coconuts, taro, cassava, rourou or bele.”
She said Pauliasi would do odd jobs in the village and the money would be used to buy food for his siblings because his father was unemployed.
“He was someone I could depend on to help put food on the table for the family.
Even if he had $1 or $5 in his possession, he would give them all to me so I could buy whatever I needed for his siblings.”
The young boy’s life was cut short on Friday, after he allegedly drowned while swimming with friends in the Naselai River in Tailevu.
Drownings leave behind affected people. They are left with only memories of good times gone past. There is a human face to such incidents.
There is an emotional attachment as well. Police spokesman, Pawan Ronaldhino said two friends who were swimming with Pauliasi raised the alarm when he disappeared while trying to jump on to a bamboo raft.
The drowning toll now stands at four compared with one for the same period last year.
The World Health Organization states that drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide, accounting for 7 per cent of all injury-related deaths.
There are an estimated 320,000 annual drowning deaths worldwide. Global estimates, it stated, may significantly underestimate the actual public health problem related to drowning.
Children, males and individuals with increased access to water were most at risk of drowning.
WHO stats in 2016 referred to an estimated 320,000 who died from drowning, making it a major public health problem worldwide.
Over half of the world’s drowning occurred in the Western Pacific regions and South-East Asian region.
It is apt that we remind ourselves about water safety once again this early in the new year. Ideally every Fijian should be a capable swimmer.
One would think there are many reasons for parents and guardians to encourage children to learn to swim.
Unfortunately this isn’t so. Not everyone is a good swimmer, and there are understandably many reasons for that.
In an ideal world, we all would be very good swimmers, and understand and appreciate water safety. However, we are not in an ideal world.
As parents and guardians, we can’t take anything for granted. So adhering to water safety tips becomes a critical element in the fight against drowning. There was a time when Fiji stood to lose an average $6.9 million a year through drowning.
Figures released during a stakeholder meeting of the Fiji Water Safety Council in Suva in April, 2012, revealed we suffered a loss of $89.5 million from 1999 to 2011 through drowning.
Drowning statistics hit an all-time high in 2005 when 68 people died.
It cost the economy $9,956,589.60. Police estimated in 2012 that an average of 48.5 people drowned annually.
This amounted to about five people for every 100,000 with our population at approximately 900,000.
So let’s be proactive. Let’s be vigilant and let us appreciate the power of nature.
Let’s place value on water safety tips. Let’s be catalysts for change. Let’s make a difference.
