Time to lift swimming teaching ban
THE reality is that Covid-19 is here, it is a reality and we all need to play our part to stop the spreading, but it doesn’t make our children of South Africa any less at risk of drowning.
Did you know that drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death in South Africa after road accidents?
Half of drowning accidents occur in and around the home in buckets, bathtubs and swimming pools. (S Fisher, 2017).
Children under the age of 15 account for 30.2% of all fatal drownings in our country and the highest mortality rate occurs in children under the age of 5. (Western Cape government, 2019).
The scariest thing is that, according to Kieno Kammies, most drowning takes place in the home or within 50 metres of home This is not just swimming pools, but washing buckets, bathtubs and other danger zones. We believe that learning to swim should be brought to the table and seen as a very essential industry. We believe that this industry should be allowed to return sooner rather than later.
With children being at home all day, the risk of them wondering off and with boredom setting in the risk is even higher.
Swimming is not like other sport activities. Swimming is a skill that could potentially save a child’s life.
It is a life skill, meaning that during formal swimming lessons children are taught to respect and understand water awareness.
Teaching swimming is a calling… it is a specialised profession and unfortunately it is not something that can be done at home. Swimming teachers spend endless hours in the pool; building relationships and getting each child they teach to a position where they are firstly water aware and water safe. Swimming teachers are unsung heroes!
As reported by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention on March 10 this year, there is no evidence that the virus which causes Covid-19 can be spread through the use of pools and hot tubs. Proper operation, maintenance, and disinfectant, for example with chlorine or bromine of pools and hot tubs should inactivate the virus that causes Covid-19.
We wish our industry not to be classified as something that will only be phased in at Level 1 of the SA lockdown mandate, but rather allow us to return to teaching this life skill. We feel that the risk is far higher of contracting the virus by allowing South Africans to go to shops for groceries or retail. We are in an environment which we can control.
Please let us return to work.
MATT WILLIAM PIKE | Johannesburg