Pvt swimming pools a threat due to lack of attention to safety
ing society in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, because of the absence of such fencing to keep out young children.
The lighting in the area is also often inadequate and there are no CCTVS to keep watch. And there are also no guards to prevent children from straying into the area when the pool is closed. 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.
Annual inspection and maintenance of the pool is also a must. While doing so, 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-yearold boy, Aditya Wardhan, died on account of his hand getting stuck in the open suction vent of his residential society’s pool in Noida’s Sector 78. A year before that, another child had met a similar fate in a residential pool in Bengaluru.
It is also important to ensure that the swimming pool is clean and, the water is regularly changed and disinfected, or else, the swimmers will come down with a host of water-borne diseases.
Similarly, the pool has to be designed and constructed in accordance with safety norms and maintained properly.
I have been looking at swimming pool-related accidents in the country in the last several years, and I find that in most cases, they are caused by sheer violation of safety norms such as (a) failure to keep a check on the number of swimmers entering and exiting the pool; (b) failure to separate the shallow and the deep ends of the pool and preventing learners from straying into the deeper end; (c) inadequate or inattentive coaches and life guards; (d) untrained life guards and coaches; (e) absence of life buoys, life jackets; (f) the lack of first aid and resuscitation facilities; (g) absence of stretchers; (h) delay in responding to emergencies and treating the victim; (i) absence of on-site doctors; (j) also absence of awareness among those who run the pools as well as those who use them, of the safety precautions that need to be taken to ensure an enjoyable swim.