Improving swimming pool safety

The next time you sigh about having to enclose your pool with fencing, consider its potential to keep kids safe. Sadly, children continue to drown in pools each year and the biggest tragedy is that most of these deaths could have been prevented with the right swimming pool safety precautions.

Fencing is an essential component in ensuring swimming pool safety, especially with children around. Each state's Swimming Pool Act requires pool owners to install a prohibitive fence around the area, which separates it from the home. They also specify that gates must be self-closing. Fencing must be planned and installed before the completion of the pool to minimise risks. 

When children are actually in the pool, nothing beats adult supervision for protecting young lives. However, parents can wander off, fall asleep or become preoccupied, so having secondary swimming pool safety measures in place is also a must. One way to help inexperienced swimmers safely make their way to an edge or exit point is to stock the pool with safe floating toys, such as tubes and inflatable wings.

Swimming pool safety can also be greatly improved by keeping an eye out for what's lying around the pool. Trikes, bikes and other mobile toys can easily guide young ones into the water, taking them right down to the bottom of the deep end without a way to get out. And while some pool covers may be used as protection for kids, most are designed only to keep the water clean or warm and cannot withstand the weight of a child. If indeed a child did fall in, the wrong cover could close over the top of them, making it especially hard to for them to get back out.

Teaching children to swim can be as rewarding as it is responsible. But while those tired little arms are still getting used to strokes, you'll need to keep a good eye on them. Make sure beginner swimmers have some extra support by including stairs in the water, providing different depth levels upon entry or exit. Marcus Burt of Landscraft Construction is enthusiastic about the advantages of this feature for improving swimming pool safety. 

"With a gradual walk-in, kids have got a good chance of going to the edge at least on one side of the pool and finding their way out," he says.

Remember, whether you've got a swag of kids yourself, or share your pool with friends, there will likely be times when you'll have some littlies over for a swim. If you provide the safest possible environment for them, your pool will be a source of fun rather than danger.