Very Few South Africans Can Swim, Says the Nsri. It Aims to Change This GroundUp_News: SouthAfrica
The National Sea Rescue Institute is building"survival swimming centres" in rural areas to help prevent drownings.The NSRI says very few South Africans, about 15%, can swim.With summer and the holidays approaching, soon thousands of adults and children will flock to the country's shorelines and public pools. But many who live inland and in poor communities do not have access to safe water bodies and have not learned how to swim. Children play unsupervised in rivers and farm dams.
Now a bright red container stands at the school. It is one of the National Sea Rescue Institute's "survival swimming centres".The first of its kind, the 12-metre shipping container contains a six-metre heated swimming pool, a changing room, an office and a camera monitored by the NSRI. The water is one metre deep, making it possible for the learners' feet to touch the ground. The facility can also be locked up to avoid children accessing it unsupervised..
"We don't teach the children how to swim, we teach them how to survive," says Petro Meyer, an NSRI Instructor in Riebeek Kasteel. She said the valley gets very hot in summer and parents are away working. Children then"go to the dams and to the rivers and they swim alone without supervision".
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