Diving tragedies on the rise: MNDF

Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) has issued warning that incidents resulting from diving decompression sickness was on the rise.

Diving decompression sickness is a wide array of health problems that arise due to diving such as pain, rashes, paralysis – and even death.

MNDF said that in some cases, people who went diving without proper training had ended up victims of tragedy, with some people having to take treatment for the rest of their life and some people permanently disabled.

“We advise that divers and those who work with divers pay special attention to safety and act in accordance with diving rules and regulations in order to reduce the number of such dangerous incidents,” said MNDF in their statement.

MNDF said that their Southern Area Command had conducted a diving safety awareness program for fishermen of Huvadhu Atoll.

“This program included supplying fishermen on information about diving safety as well as providing awareness on dangerous incidents that may occur while under water,” read the statement.

MNDF said that they had noticed that many diving tragedies were a result of fishermen with no training on diving, diving in violation of diving rules and regulations. They said that while some dived 40 meters, 60 meters and 70 meters; some dived two or three times a day while others dived more than seven times a day.

MNDF said that Southern Area Command would conduct a series of programs on diving safety to fishermen in all southern atolls of the country.