Preventing Toddler Drowning Deaths

Many of us who live in farming communities know the importance of water and irrigation. Water brings life and nourishment to the desert areas.

I live in the upper Snake River valley. I grew up on a farm and we was able to flood irrigate by using the Dams and head gates to raise water levels. Naturally, there are inherent dangers when we rearrange a part of nature to suit our own needs.

Part of the old farmer mentality is that there will always be accidents and losses of life due to the dangerous nature of harnessing waterpower. I don't subscribe to this point of view because I'm part of both the old and the new generation and I feel that we need to be more accountable for our actions.

There are substantially more deaths from drowning in farming communities simply because there is more water. It's no longer adequate to teach our children about the dangers of water. We need to teach them to swim, but we also need to be a little more proactive.

It's not surprising that most of the preventable deaths are toddlers who wander out of site and fall into a ditch or canal. There is a particularly high incident rate of toddlers that fall into the water and are swept into areas where they can't be immediately rescued. Small bridges and culverts make rescue difficult and dangerous.

We as homeowners with irrigation canals should at least cover the areas that make rescue difficult regardless of whether or not we have children. Protective screens can be made out of metal or plastic. They need occasional maintenance and cleaning, but it could just save a life.

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