The Minister of Sports and Youth Marina Ferrari announced Thursday on RMC that the death toll from drowning stood at “more than 90” since June 19, “a worrying figure” she lamented.
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The latest report from the authorities showed 74 deaths by drowning since June 18.
“Since June 19, we have reported more than 90 drownings. A figure which is worrying,” lamented the minister.
“There, we have seen a drop in recent days, so we can clearly see that it is also correlated with a heat peak where people are looking for coolness. The first days, there were a lot of young people, then it spread out,” explained Marina Ferrari.
However, she stressed that “there is no typical profile, firstly there is a fragility in very young children, who must not be left unsupervised, then there are young people who behave in dangerous ways, ‘I jump off a bridge’, ‘I go into a canal which is not supervised'”.
Marina Ferrari recognized “that we have a fragility in swimming pools, particularly in rural areas, where we have fewer and fewer swimming pools because there is a renovation problem”.
“We are working on an overhaul of the national aquatic lifeguard certificate to give them more autonomy in supervision, to strengthen lifeguards. The decree will soon be published to be operational from next year. This is a reform that has been long awaited,” highlighted the minister.
Marina Ferrari also felt that “we needed to redevelop learning to swim in open water, since we can clearly see today that we have a lot of accidents that are not in swimming pools”.
The French Swimming Federation took advantage of the French Championships which end on Thursday in Saint-Étienne to announce the launch today of a drowning prevention campaign.
“The Federation wanted to take the lead on these subjects since there is a lack of aquatic culture in France,” said Lazreg Benelhadj, deputy president of the FFN. “We need to make people aware of the dangers of the aquatic environment. »
Four videos raising awareness of the main situations that can lead to drowning will be broadcast on the federation’s social networks, with the slogan “Drowning does not prevent”.
The videos thus present the main cases causing drownings: non-compliance with signs, overestimation of one’s physical capabilities, lack of supervision in private swimming pools and behaviors associated with alcohol consumption.
During the summer of 2025, 409 people died from drowning in France, an increase of 16% compared to 2024, according to Public Health France. Among the victims were 57 children and adolescents.
