Seventy per cent of Bahrainis never or rarely swim

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Seventy per cent of Bahrainis never or rarely go swimming, according to Royal Life Saving Bahrain (RLSB). The organisation says that four out of five Bahrainis hardly participate in aquatic activities, highlighting the lack of water minded culture in Bahrain.

The Water Safety Benchmarking Survey conducted by RLSB earlier showed that less than half of the children in the Kingdom don’t know how to swim and a large majority of children have no access to swimming pools at primary schools.

This trend is attributed to limited opportunities to learn basic swimming skills in the Kingdom. Health experts say swimming should be seen as an activity beyond fun.

“Swimming provides loads of health benefits to both children and adults apart from improving strength and flexibility. It is also a major activity to boost confidence.” Swimming is an activity, which boosts body metabolism, energising both body and mind.

Doctors even advise swimming to patients after surgery as the density of water can take pressure off bones and joints, helping them recover without additional pain. RLSB cites many challenges that need to be addressed in order to promote swimming culture in the Kingdom.

And the most important of them is to provide basic swimming facilities at government schools. The Water Safety Strategy was developed in Bahrain for promoting safe enjoyment of the water, building cohesive communities, enabling economic development and save lives.

“Safety needs to be improved across private pools with licence and without a licence. We lose many lives to drowning and have a limited focus on monitoring and analysing drowning and injuries. “People should have a minimal understanding about how to be safe in, on and around water.

They should have first aid knowledge for dealing with emergencies. Our public beaches have no lifeguard services or safety measures and hotels lack a standardised approach to managing safety in swimming pools and at beaches.” RLSB is the nation’s peak aquatic authority in drowning prevention and water safety.

It works with communities, institutions and the local leisure industry to educate and advocate a safer aquatic environment for residents and tourists in line with international standards. The General Directorate of Civil Defence frequently holds swimming pool safety awareness campaigns for all governorates.

It also carries out inspections of pools to enhance awareness of safety rules and conditions. The Directorate has been regularly alerting the public to be careful by following safety steps at pools and resorts and avoiding leaving children unattended.