Gulf News

4-year-old boy’s drowning puts spotlight on pool safety

ACCIDENTAL DROWNING IS SECOND-BIGGEST KILLER OF KIDS, TOPPED ONLY BY ROAD ACCIDENTS

- BY MAZHAR FAROOQUI Features Editor - Special Reports

The case of a fouryear-old Emirati boy drowning in the swimming pool of a Sharjah school last fortnight has once again sparked concerns over pool safety.

Not without reason. Accidental drowning is the secondbigg­est killer of children in the UAE, topped only by road accidents. Of late, it has snuffed out the lives of several kids in supposedly safe places like schools, homes, hotels and health clubs.

During Ramadan this year, a one-and-a-half-year-old girl and her two-and-a-half-yearold cousin drowned after falling into a swimming pool at a villa in Mirdif while their families were having iftar.

Days later, another child died in a building pool in Sharjah while yet another met the same fate in Al Ain. As it turned out, the three-year-old had sneaked out of the room without his parents’ knowledge.

In Abu Dhabi, seven people drowned this year. Last year, most of the 14 drowning victims in the capital were kids, like the four boys aged between 10 and 12 years who drowned in Al Bahia on the city’s outskirts.

Drowning accounted for 14 lives in Dubai last year. Most victims were kids.

Swimming pool safety experts said parental neglect and lack of supervisio­n at pools are the main reasons for these tragedies. “Parents should teach their child to swim as early as possible,” said David Thorne of Dubai-based pool safety fence company Baby Secure. “This will help them understand the risks and improve their chances in case of an accident.”

Thorne also urged parents not to leave toys or objects in the water which children might want to retrieve.

Paul Peters of Aqua Net said all pools should be fenced and kids shouldn’t be allowed near a pool unless they are accompanie­d by adults.

Agnel of Max Pools said all pools must be fenced. “We provide a wide range of safety equipment but there’s no subsitute to adult supervisio­n,” he said.

“A moment of neglect could be a lifetime of regret,” said another pool safety expert.

In order to jolt parents into a realisatio­n that their carelessne­ss can cost lives, Dubai Police released a chilling cautionary video titled Your Children are Your Responsibi­lity. The 30-second video shows how a little girl drowns in a pool after slipping out from a room where her mother is busy socialisin­g.

It was this oversight which nearly killed a three-year-old who wandered away from his room and toppled into a pool in Dubai’s Motor City last June. The boy had stopped breathing. Fortunatel­y, someone called for an ambulance and he was resuscitat­ed.

Last February, a seven-yearold had a miraculous escape when he fell into a pool in Springs 11 and lost consciousn­ess. He was pulled out by a boy in the neighbourh­ood.

Municipali­ty rules about swimming pool safety equipment and lifeguards continue to be violated with impunity across commercial and residentia­l buildings.

An earlier Gulf News report revealed how watchmen and security guards do lifeguard duties at pools. Forget having CPR and first aid certificat­ion — many don’t even know how to swim.

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Picture for illustrati­ve purposes

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