The Water Safety Council is urging the public not to contend with floodwaters to avoid drowning.

Director John Philip says people tend to ignore warnings and advisories given out by authorities and the onus is on each individual to ensure their safety.

“Statistically 77 per cent of drowning are in the cyclone season, that’s now. This warning is timely. We’ve had five people drown confirmed already this year. Shortly to rise by a couple of people pending post mortem but they all following that trend – diving unsupervised, kids unsupervised – you get caught in a fresh water drain with masses of water flowing, and you can’t get out. You can’t play with those risks.”

Philip adds, Fiji’s drowning toll each year is too big for a small nation and reducing the number of drowning is everyone’s responsibility.

“Take the warnings seriously. The Police and the National Disaster people have put warnings out and they are not doing that for fun or for the sake of doing it. Take those warnings seriously. Look out for people, especially children.”

According to Philip, more lives can be saved if people knew basic life saving skills like CPR. Of the five drowning deaths so far this year, CPR was attempted in only one case.