The Director of Sea Cadet Foundation, Joseph Benedict Aubyn, has called on government to strengthen water safety laws to protect the lives of the citizenry from drowning.
According to him, many youth lose their lives while swimming for pleasure and expressed an urgent need for the citizenry to be educated on the risks involved while swimming in sea, pools and spas.
Speaking at a seminar on “Safety of Life at Sea” in Accra on Friday, Mr Aubyn indicated that swimming was good for the body due to the therapeutic nature of the sea, but the story changed when the swimmer did not know the risk involved.
“We are all aware of what happened in Apam where 13 children wanted to go and swim to have fun. Of course swimming is good but we have to do so with a mindset of safety, hence this seminar to teach school children on the risk involved while having pleasure at the sea,” he added.
Mr Aubyn noted that some fisher folks and parents neglect their children at the shores, hence when the laws were strengthened they would oblige strictly to it and provide children with the necessary safety materials before swimming.
The laws, he said when strengthened would provide necessary education to parents, caregivers, and pool owners to reduce child drowning, near-drowning and entrapments in the sea, swimming pools and spas.
Mr Aubyn, therefore, advised parents to protect their children at all times, especially around the sea to reduce swimming fatalities.
He also appealed to the government to include in the curriculum a swimming course to educate children on the need and means to swim while teaching them the risk involved when swimming without safety aid like life jacket.
“We are also campaigning for a legislation in parliament where water safety will be strengthened. You can’t go to the sea without having the necessary safety aids,” Mr Aubyn stated.
Touching on the theme: “No Life Jacket No Swimming,” Staff Sargent Collin Sampson, Assistant to the Country’s Adviser of the British High Commission Ministry of Defence said it was vital for swimmers to have life jacket to support them at all times.
He also lauded the Sea Cadet Foundation for the campaign to reduce swimming fatalities and urged the government to provide water safety instructions to children and share guidelines with caregivers and the entire citizenry for the campaign’s aim to be met.
On her part, the part time lecturer of Regional Maritime University, Catherine Haizel, noted that the sea played a vital role in the lives of mankind and stressed the need for lives to be protected around it.
She said when government enforces stringent laws, the citizenry would obey certain protocols at the sea, adding that “the government has to make provision for life jackets at the sea and also identify danger spots to enable the citizenry know where they can swim and where they cannot.”
BY JOYCELINE NATALLY CUDJOE
