WSNZ Incidents
Water Safety NZ (WSNZ) Drowning Incident Data 2020 Preventable fatalities include recreational and non-recreational drowning deaths. They do not include those fatalities classified as ‘other’ (arising because of road or air vehicle accidents, homicide, suicide or of unknown origin) as these are not considered applicable to the prevention and rescue efforts of the water safety sector. In the 10-year period 2011-2020, there were 797 preventable drowning fatalities in New Zealand. Of these, 17 occurred in public pools (5 (29%) Hotel/Motel Pools, 1 (6%) Institution Pools, 7 (41%) Public Pools, 1 (6%) School Pools, 3 (18%) Thermal Pools) In 2020 (1 January – 31 December 2020), there 76 preventable drowning fatalities in New Zealand. Of these, 2 occurred in public pools (2 (100%) Public Pools). In the 10-year period 2011-2020 there were 1195 hospitalisations (requiring an overnight stay or longer) in New Zealand. 273 of these occurred in pools. In 2020, there were 133 hospitalisations (requiring an overnight stay or longer) in New Zealand. Of these, 27 occurred in pools. (Note, with hospitalisations, it’s a generic “pools” category. We can’t split it down any further into public/private) The facility data covers 1 July 2020 – 30 June 2021
