What a sad end to an otherwise happy event! May the souls of these young men rest in Peace!
Such is the type of story we hear that make us wonder why Swimming and its attended rescue techniques are not generally taught to ... read full comment
What a sad end to an otherwise happy event! May the souls of these young men rest in Peace!
Such is the type of story we hear that make us wonder why Swimming and its attended rescue techniques are not generally taught to all Ghanaians, whether or not we live near a body of water.
As natural as those living near Streams, Rivers, Lakes and Oceans learn how to swim from infancy, there are certain vital lessons all need to enhance survival in water under stressful circumstances.
Besides, hardly have I ever seen Life Guards positioned around Swimming Pools or Sea Shores, let alone Rivers and Lakes, to monitor Swimmers to alert them of dangers or initiate crucial early attempts at rescuing stressful Swimmers at risk of drowning.
I remember in my earlier days in the USA, I was called upon in a facility that I used to work at to be a Life Guard for a few moments, even though I told the Authorities I didn't know how to Swim. But given the sudden loss of personnel presence around the facility's Swimming Pool, while Swimmers had already dipped into the water in massive numbers, the Authorities thought they needed a personnel to fill in momentarily to monitor every moment of the Swimmers' presence in the water until a replacement with a well-trained Life Guard is assigned to the facility.
I asked my bosses what if someone was drowning and I could not jump into the water to save him or her? Their immediate response is that my limited training on sensing danger among the Swimmers behaviors and an approaching dangerous wave were enough to alert the Swimmers and/or the Emergency Personnel before the worst happened.
I had a whistle, a binocular, a Speed
Boat, a bunch of floaties and floatation suits and tubes, and a long Pole around me to use if needed. "Yeah, right!" I told myself. "I would only blow the whistle, and immediately call for Emergency Help."
But just the thought that even in such an extreme case of personnel need, still an effort was made by the Facility's owners to ensure Swimmers were relatively safe, impressed me a lot. And ever since, I kept wondering why we, in Ghana, seem never to care that much to save lives around bodies of water. We don't even encourage the learning of CPR in Schools.
We may not be able to enforce any requirements for Life Guards in every private Pool in Ghana. But at least, we could establish the Law that would require Pool owners place life-saving equipment close to the Pool for use by anyone around that could initiate a rescue. And in the case like this where the area of Swimming is not a usual Swimming facility, organizers of the Swimming event ought to place around Floatation Suits and tubes and other equipment to use for rescue.
It is simple but crucial things of ordinary living that best measure the level of development in every Community, or Country. We must do more to ensure greater safety for our folks.
What a sad end to an otherwise happy event! May the souls of these young men rest in Peace!
Such is the type of story we hear that make us wonder why Swimming and its attended rescue techniques are not generally taught to ...
read full comment