Burringurrah mums show textbook supervision skills
The Watch Around Water program is a joint initiative of Royal Life Saving WA and the state’s aquatic industry, aimed to ensure parents are aware of their responsibility to closely supervise their children at WA’s public swimming pools. The program started in 2004 in response to a tragic spate of drownings involving children at public aquatic centres.
The Watch Around Water program reminds parents that a lifeguard’s role is to keep an eye on everyone at the centre, and respond should there be an emergency, but that parents are still directly responsible for the supervision of their own children. Pleasingly the message is getting through, with a significant shift in patron behaviour. Since it’s introduction in 2004, there have been no drowning deaths involving young children in public swimming pool facilities in Western Australia, and pool managers report significantly increased levels of parental supervision.
Despite the success there is no time for complacency, and pool managers across the state continue to actively promote the program throughout the year. Our regional and remote pools are no exception, and it’s been great to see that parents even in the most remote parts of the state getting on board with the Watch Around Water!
We recently received the above image from Jamie O’Donohue, our pool manager at Burringurrah remote Aboriginal community. He says he snapped the pic after noticing these two mums performing textbook Watch Around Water parent supervision with their kids in the toddler pool. “I mentioned Watch Around Water to the mums, and they both said they were aware of its message and significance. I told them I was impressed with their level of supervision and that it was textbook stuff, and that they were both setting a great example to other mums!”
It’s fantastic to see our remote pools working hard to share this important life-saving message within their communities and that the message is being taken onboard! You can learn more about Watch Around Water at the link below.
