Cape Town – With drowning incidents occurring regularly, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) has launched its first survival swimming centre.
According to the NSRI, only 15% of South Africans can swim and with the drowning statistics as high as they are, learning how to swim should be prioritised as an essential skill for all South Africans, especially children.
“This centre combats two critical issues we have identified, which is offering underprivileged children access to a safe swimming pool, which many communities do not have, and secondly, by offering the lessons at no cost means there is no financial barrier,” said Andrew Ingram, drowning prevention manager at the NSRI.
The centre has been constructed in a 12m shipping container and features a 6m-long swimming pool, an office space for the instructor and a change room for students.
For safety, the pool is a metre deep, which allows smaller children to stand in the pool.
The pool can also be completely locked up when not in use to ensure there is no danger of anyone entering it without instructors on duty.
The first phase of this project is being trialled and tested at Meiring Primary School in Riebeek Kasteel.
Ingram said the school was identified by the organisation after a fatal drowning took place there.
“Even though there are many incidents like these in the country, we selected the school because we already (like in many other parts of the country) have a swimming instructor servicing that area,” he said.
School principal Brenton Cupido said the school was extremely excited about this project.
“Following the fatal drowning incident at our school, myself, the staff, and the school pupils were terribly affected by this incident. It is crucial for our schoolchildren to be taught survival swimming to prevent any further tragedies,” he said.
The swimming lessons will kick off with the Grade 7 pupils and two school teachers and other grades will follow.
The first set of teachers being taught will also be skilled in becoming instructors and able to carry the safe swimming culture forward in their communities.
“The set of skills of becoming a Survival Swimming Instructor is something that we will be leaving the teachers with for the benefit of not only the school, but the community as a whole,” Ingram said.
Fundamentals being taught will include how to hold your breath underwater, opening your eyes underwater, how to float and how to propel at least 5m in the water.
“The swimming container is incredibly advanced, with built-in cameras inside that are monitored by the NSRI’s emergency operations centre.
“In addition to that, it has numerous monitoring devices to check the air temperature, humidity, and water quality.
“This project has received incredible support from the swimming pool industry, which has made it possible to do a proof of concept on a tight budget.
“For example, we have a purpose-designed swimming pool and top-of-the-range filtration and circulation system in the SSC which were fully donated. This, with the specialist help given to us by various industry leaders, has made what was a dream a reality,” Ingram said.
The NSRI stated that with slight modifications to the design of the Survival Swimming Centre it would be able to deploy such centres anywhere in South Africa.
“For example, by using solar power where there is no electricity, we can service communities that previously had little chance of having a swimming pool to learn to swim in,” Ingram added.
robin.francek@inl.co.za
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