The Ministry of Education will hold a festival May 30-31 in the southern city of Tainan, alongside the 2025 Tainan City International Dragon Boat Championships, to enhance water safety awareness among students in Taiwan.
According to the MOE’s Sports Administration, May is the month when drownings increase, as students and young people start to enjoy water recreation. This is a particular risk after mid-term and graduation exams and around the Dragon Boat Festival, which is a national holiday and falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, or May 31 this year.
Themed “Team Up for Water Safety,” the festival will comprise a series of activities including canoeing, dragon boat rowing, paddle board sessions and a dance contest, as well as a raft of immersive adventures, puzzle solving and simulations to enhance participants’ knowledge of water survival skills.
The SA said the annual festival is in response to the World Health Organization’s global reports on drownings that described the hazard as a “serious and neglected public health threat”, adding that “Anyone can drown, no one should.”
The SA calls on all stakeholders to focus on safety issues so that the public can enjoy water recreation and prevent tragedies from occurring. (SFC-E)
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