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Swimming South Africa is concerned about the number of children who drown each year. (REUTERS)

Swimming South Africa is calling for the Department of Education and other relevant stakeholders to take swimming lessons seriously, especially for disadvantaged children in rural areas.

This is as high temperatures are experienced in some parts of the country this summer.  Due to scorching heat children are tempted to swim in dams, quarries and rivers to cool down, forgetting the risk of drowning.

According to Swimming South Africa, Mahikeng in the North West is reported to be more exposed to drowning incidents.

Recently one child drowned in a quarry in Moshawane village in Mahikeng while swimming with his friends.   

According to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), from December 2015 to January 2016, there were 22 fatal drowning with about 14 adult incidents and 8 children incidents.  

Over the 2015/16 festive season the NSRI rescued a total of 141 people in 123 cases.  

South African experts say drowning is caused by the lack of swimming skills due to lack of relevant facilities for children in their schools, particularly in rural areas.

Swimming South Africa’s Nelly Silenp says swimming is not only a sport but it also plays an important role, more particularly during floods

The North West is one of the provinces that also experiences a high number of drowning incidents, mostly during festive seasons.  However, Swimming South Africa says this is due to lack of facilities in and around the villages and townships where young people could be trained for swimming.

Swimming South Africa’s Nelly Silenp says swimming is not only a sport but it also plays an important role, more particularly during floods.

“I think swimming is a survival skill and also a recreational matter. It is very important especially now because we experience floods which we know are very dangerous when it comes to children just wanting to have some fun within the water. It is very important for children to have proper swimming lessons because it is a life skill.”

Silenp says they have tried to engage the Department of Education and Sports to come up with plans on how to bring swimming facilities to rural areas. Silenp says it is important that children should be taught swimming from a young age.

“Number one is safe swim facilities, it should be safe and it should be properly maintained and the public must have access to those facilities. These facilities must be in close distance of where children are living because if there are no facilities they go to dangerous areas, and that is where drownings take place.” 

In 2015 three people drowned on New Year’s Day in different incidents in the North West. However the North West Department of Education says they have programmes in place that are aimed at averting drownings.

Departmental Spokesperson Freddy Sepeng says although the department has not yet built any facilities in rural areas, plans are ahead for such programmes.

“We having what we call learn teaching programme in partnership with swimming North West accredited by the National swimming federation and SASCOC and through this programme what we are doing, we are busy teaching members of the community including learners themselves about how to swim. What we have done is that we have identified places where there are swimming pools and then we transport those kids to such places where they can be taught how to swim.”

The World Health Organisation lists drowning as one of the top causes of unnatural deaths amongst children in South Africa, with lack of supervision playing a major role. Globally the highest drowning rates are among children between one and four years old followed by children aged five to nine.

Source: http://www.sabc.co.za