Manitoba has an unfortunate reputation in regards to its bodies of water. 

According to Christopher Love, Water Smart and Safety Management Coordinator with Life Saving Society Manitoba (LSSM), drowning statistics don't favour us compared to the rest of the country, with Manitoba being the children ages 0-4 drowning capital of Canada.

The national average is 1.1 per 100,000, Manitoba is more than triple at 3.5 per 100,000.
Love says looking at the data there is a high probability to why this number is so high. 

"One of the things we do see, again if we look at our statistics, is supervision being absent or being distracted when it comes to those youth and child drownings. Our latest statistics, the five year period of 2011 until 2015, basically shows that in 100 percent of cases where we did have a child end up being a drowning fatality the supervision was either absent or distracted." 

He notes another reason has to do with how much water there is in Manitoba and many communities, especially in Northern or remote areas, are built directly on that water, meaning there are more opportunities for a child to wander off and have water relatively close. 

The biggest thing to prevent these horrific events is actively watch your children when near water, says Love, and for those who are young or are non-swimmers to be within arms reach so that you can grab them and they can grab you. 

When it comes to water safety, the LSSM teaches a layered safety approach; the continuous observation of young children, ensuring young children and weak swimmers wear life jackets and putting kids into swimming lessons. 

Love says formal swimming instruction has been shown to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities, but most importantly, people need to respect the water. 

"Certainly water conditions can change; for anyone who's seen lake Winnipeg on a day where it gets really windy and a storm blows in it can go from a being a very calm, flat, nice looking body of water into one that's basically an inland sea." 

People need to be prepared for any eventuality when going to the lake or beach, says Love, as it won't always bee the same conditions as you went last, and every drowning is preventable.