Water Safety New Zealand says "more and more kids are coming out of the education system without the basic water safety skills" and is hoping to turn this around through an initiative which is about to reach thousands more children.
Last year, 108 lives were lost as a result of drowning and 75 per cent were considered to be preventable, according to Water Safe New Zealand.
The organisation's chief executive Jonty Mills told TVNZ 1's Breakfast programme this morning around a quarter of 2500 schools that were surveyed were providing adequate or minimal levels of basic water safety training.
Mr Mills acknowledged a major barrier to teaching water safety in New Zealand schools is due to the number of schools closing their pools.
"There are also the barriers around cost and transport and access to facilities to go to," Mr Mills said.
Water Safety New Zealand is aspiring to reach more children and teach them skills and competencies to allow them to be safe and enjoy the water through a new partnership with Swimming New Zealand and The Warehouse.
Through the Water Skills for Life initiative, Water Safety New Zealand is currently reaching 200,000 children aged between five to 13 but the partnership will "enable us to reach a whole lot more children."
"Water skills for life goes right to the heart of drowning causation and its aimed at complement learning to swim programmes.
"We are still towards the top end of the drowning toll in the developed world, so it's a real concern for us," Mr Mills explained.
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