Making the splash safely

Pushpa Girimaji

Our residential colony has a swimming pool where we have coaching classes for children. However, most residents send their children with housemaids, who are often preoccupied either with the cellphone or chatting with other maids. As an office-bearer of the residents’ association, I feel worried about the safety of children and want to know how to ensure that.  

I am glad you raised this issue because, in the recent years, most housing colonies prefer to have swimming pools. However, most residents do not pay adequate attention to safety and, as a result, there have been many tragic accidents. 

First and foremost, there is often no parental supervision when young children are swimming or learning to swim, and that’s always risky. In March this year, a seven-year-old from Jaipur died in a children’s pool in a private beach resort in Kerala, while her parents were inside their room, located right in front of the pool. So you have to insist on parental supervision.

I also find that the pools are invariably over-crowded with none keeping a track on how many children entered the pool and whether each one of them exited. On the basis of the size of the pool, there should be restriction on the number of swimmers at a given time and someone has to not only ensure this, but also write down the name of every person entering the pool. Presence of well-trained lifeguards is also a must. It is essential to separate the deep end of the pool from the shallow end with a net. Many children have died because of the absence of such a separation.

In residential colonies, usually there is no fencing around the pool to prevent children from accidentally falling into the water while playing in the area. Last summer, four-year-old Manbir Singh Banwayat drowned in Hyde Park Housing Society in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, because of the absence of such fencing. Barricading the pool is extremely important. Also in most colonies, lighting in the area is inadequate and there are no CCTVs to keep a watch. Also, there are also no guards to prevent children from straying into the area when the pool is closed.  

Similarly, there should be adequate number of life jackets, life buoys for beginners, an oxygen cylinder, artificial respirator, first aid box and a stretcher, for emergencies. It is also important to identify a hospital close to the colony and have the phone numbers of its emergency unit. Similarly, you should have the phone number of an ambulance service and a doctor on call and these should be displayed prominently near the pool. 

Is a licence needed for the pool?

You will have to check the licencing requirements and conditions for residential colonies from the licencing authority in your city/district and strictly comply with it. The pool has to be designed and constructed in accordance with the safety norms and maintained properly. Ensure that the pool is clean and the water regularly changed and disinfected, or else, the swimmers will come down with a host of water-borne diseases. 

I must mention that during annual inspection and maintenance of the pool, it is extremely important to ensure that covers of all drains and suction outlets are in place and properly screwed and secured. Or else there is every danger of a swimmer’s hand or leg or hair getting caught in them. Two years ago, a nine-year-old boy, Aditya Wardhan died on account of his hand getting stuck in the open suction vent of his residential society’s pool in Sector 78 of Noida. A year before that, another child had met a similar fate in a residential pool in Bengaluru. All these precautions should ensure the safety of all swimmers, particularly young children and learners.