New Zealand's drowning problem is more than a disturbing statistic.

Every year hundreds of Kiwis die in the water. They don't need to.

Stuff is working with Water Safety New Zealand to help Kiwi kids stay safe in summer. And we'd like your help.

The money raised through this Givealittle page will go towards ensuring dozens of Kiwi lives are saved.

The majority of New Zealanders have a relationship with the water but we're too complacent, warns Water Safety New Zealand.

SURF LIFE SAVING NEW ZEALAND/SUPPLIED Water Safety New Zealand (WSNZ) chief executive officer Jonty Mills said New Zealand could achieve a "zero drowning" goal but water safety needed to become our nation's priority.

A Stuff investigation has revealed preventable drownings have killed about 462 people since 2013 and is the third-highest cause of accidental deaths.

Our island nation with up to 18,000 kilometres of coastline, rivers and streams stretching over 425,000km, and more than 775 lakes larger than half a kilometre, has drowning fatalities twice the rate of Australia and four times that of the United Kingdom, according to Water Safety New Zealand.

Rolling into our summer-holiday season New Zealand has recorded 64 fatalities. Based on annual averages, the statistics mean we are likely to lose at least another 40 lives before the year is out. Most of those will be preventable.

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WSNZ chief executive officer Jonty Mills believes New Zealand can achieve a "zero drowning" goal but water safety will need to become our nation's priority.

"Learn to swim, wear and use the right safety equipment, learn survival skills and, most importantly, keep your loved ones, especially young children close."

ROSA WOODS/STUFF Water Safety NZ chief executive Jonty Mills talks about the summer water safety campaign.

Factors hampering aquatic literacy include lack of transport, costs, the degradation of our country's facilities and continued pool closures.

Mills said people's attitudes were another huge hurdle, with the Kiwi motto of "she'll be right" failing its people.

That's why Water Safety New Zealand has set up a Givealittle page so it can expand its Water Skills For Life - a programme built to tackle "the drowning problem" head on through education. Stuff is formally backing the fundraising.

Survival comes down to the water-skills people are taught, Mills said.

With the public's help it's hoped every child in Years 1 to 8 will have access to an aquatic education to lower the number of preventable drowning deaths.

In New Zealand drowning is the second-highest accidental cause of death recorded for 1 to 24 year-olds. Auckland has the highest drowning fatality average – about 17 people every year killed in the northern city alone.

Accidental immersion - people who did not intend to be in the water - is the leading cause of deaths across the country.

Deaths were often the result of over-estimated abilities, conditions, precautions not met, alcohol, cold water and shock, and not knowing how to float, swim or survive in the water.

Worldwide, drowning is the third leading cause of preventable deaths with about 360,000 people killed every year but even those statistics may "significantly underestimate the actual public health problem", according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

"Despite these tragic facts, drowning prevention gets relatively little attention and few resources," WHO reported in January.

Mills said every person in New Zealand needed to be doing more to turn the alarming statistics around.

Every year hundreds of Kiwis die in the water. They don't need to.

Supplied Rolling into our summer-holiday season New Zealand has recorded 62 fatalities. Pictured, a rescue at Waipatiki Beach, Tangoio.

Stuff is working with Water Safety New Zealand to help Kiwi kids stay safe in summer. And we'd like your help.

The money raised through this Givealittle page will go towards ensuring dozens of Kiwi lives are saved.