Editorial: Water safety

OPINION: Drowning has traditionally been one of the most common causes of accidental death in New Zealand with an average of 114 people dying annually in the past five years at a total social cost of $382 million.

Tragically, many of the deaths which have occurred have been avoidable, had the victims been better swimmers or had an understanding of water safety skills. For this reason the decline in the number of school swimming pools must be a major concern.

Gone are the days when most schools had their own swimming pools, serving not just the pupils and staff at the institution but often the local community as well. This was shown by a survey of 28 Christchurch schools, of which 11 had decommissioned a pool and three had never had a pool.

And although 76 per cent of schools are funded to maintain pools, the complaint has emerged that this funding barely covered the cost of chemicals. Across the nation between 2003 and 2005 some 239 school pools were closed.

Cost is often cited as the reason for schools closing pools, especially if the amenity is old and has developed leaks. And with school budgets tight some might believe the money needed to repair and even maintain a pool could be more productively spent elsewhere.

In other cases the bureaucratic health and safety requirements might dissuade schools from operating pools.

If this trend of school pool closures continues, or new schools do not build them, New Zealand will be in danger of developing a generation among whom swimming skills are poor or non-existent. This must inevitably have an impact on drowning statistics.

It is true that longer term there has been a reduction in the number of drownings. Last year, for example, there were 96 cases, which is the second lowest annual figure on record and a far cry from the high of 215 in 1985.

But the annual drowning toll will rise over time if the present trend of children not learning to swim continues. Between 2001 and 2008, for example, the swimming ability of 10-year-olds fell by 10 per cent.

But a school pool can perform a broader role than teaching pupils to swim as it can also be the focus of the water safety instruction which might ultimately save pupils' lives, including the need for boaties to wear lifejackets and always swimming between the flags on patrolled beaches.

Some schools will send pupils to one of the larger heated pools, like that at QEII Park, for lessons. An attraction of this course of action is that these pools are open all year, whereas an uncovered school pool might only be open for several weeks for climatic reasons.

Yet the decline of young people's aquatic skills suggests that too few schools and parents are taking this option. One water safety expert has said that school pools provided a cheaper and more sustainable way to teach children to swim. And rather than going across town to a pool, the accessibility of a local school facility, at least in summer, might encourage more students to take swimming lessons.

In some cases, communities faced with a school pool closure have rallied around and raised the funding themselves. At West Spreydon School, for example, its community raised enough to fix its two leaky pools and is now looking at covering them.

But not all school communities would be able to find sufficient money to repair a leaky pool or enlarge it and then maintain it.

There is surely a role for the Christchurch City Council to support communities which are attempting to save school pools in the city. The council's focus has been on developing a network of larger all-year pools and it bulldozed rather than fixed the small and ageing Edgeware Pool.

But the council should consider making money available for communities to repair or upgrade their local school pools, with the funding being repaid over time. After all, the council believes it is fine to use its borrowing to help the University of Canterbury get its proposed Music Conservatorium, which arguably should be a central government responsibility.

The council should also assist school communities to retain their pools to help ensure that children do learn to swim and develop the sense of water safety which could one day mean they do not become drowning statistics.

- © Fairfax NZ News