Nepal, March 1 -- This week saw yet another tragic case of a Nepali student drowning in Australia. Over the past few years, we have read and heard about what seems like more than sporadic instances of drowning deaths in other countries - of young lives lost either due to misadventure or a lack of grounding in water related activities. While many of these deaths may undoubtedly be attributed to natural phenomena like rip currents and ignorance about potentially dangerous spots and local water conditions, it's also a general lack of swimming skills that often does it for us Nepalis people.

As a whole and with an admittedly sweeping generalization, we tend to lack even basic survival skills like treading water which makes us, as a populace,...