Be Water Aware: Cartoons, art help Promote Water Safety

By John Freeman on 28 May 2026

This week has, sadly, seen a number of water related deaths, children and teenagers victim to cold water shock as they tried to cool off in the heatwave. Across social media, there have been those who suggest a lack of effort to educate the public about the dangers, but this is simply untrue, and organisations have utilised cartoons and illustrations to emphasise safer water use.

Ireland National Water Safety Awareness Week By Mick O’Hara

For Ireland’s timely National Water Safety Awareness Week, this year, for example, which ran from 18th – 24th May, Galway Cartoon Festival, which returns in October, supported the campaign by commissioning cartoons by Mick O’Hara, co-creator of Zig and Zag and Podge and Rodge, along with Graeme Keyes (The Phoenix, Private Eye, Irish Daily Mail) and Richard “Serg” Chapman (Galway Advertiser, Galway City Tribune, The Phoenix, Private Eye).

*Water Safety Campaign Cartoon by Graeme Keyes highlighting the importance of water safety awareness*

*Watch Out For Rip Currents water safety cartoon by Richard Chapman*

The cartoons helped highlight the importance of learning how to use equipment before trying any aquatic activity. You can bid to buy the original art for some of them here on the Festival’s website.

Cartoons also help promote their Safe Boating campaign, posters available to download in both English and Gaelic.

While the creators of their illustrations are uncredited, in the UK the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK) organises Drowning Prevention Week, which will take place this year from 13th until 20th June.

This is an annual, water safety campaign, designed to educate children and young adults in water safety and lifesaving skills.

Drowning Prevention Week educates children aged 5 to 17 each June with crucial water safety advice just before the summer holidays, when young people are outdoors more and need these skills and knowledge most, so everyone can enjoy water safely.

The RLSS is calling on all carers, schools, lifesaving clubs, leisure operators and water-related businesses to participate.

The campaigns complement year round work by these and other organisations running them, directly in schools and other settings. Recent statistics compiled by the National Water Safety Forum, indicate fatalities have gone down since 2021, although, of course, every death is unwelcome, and, sadly, they did rise last year.

”A drowning death is not just a statistic; it is a tragedy, for the individual, their family, friends and all who are affected by the incident,” the Outdoor Swimming Society notes, advising caution but also giving context to the statistics. “However, attitudes to swimming that bear very little relation to the actual risk do nothing to help keep people safe. The facts show that the chance of drowning when swimming is very low in the UK. According to drowning figures collected by the National Water Safety Forum, in the UK 277 people drowned accidentally in 2021, and just over 20% (61) of these were swimming. This can be set against the several million people we know swim outdoors each year, most of them many times a year.”

You can download the RLSS Drowning Prevention Week 2026 Campaign Supporters Pack here

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.