4 minute read
SAVING LIVES ... CREATING FUTURES
NSRI’s Drowning Prevention manager Andrew Ingram updates us on two projects very close to his heart.
BEACH SAFETY CAMERAS
Following the success of the first beach safety camera at Strand, which has been used to help rescuers during a number of operations as well as identifying rip currents and helping Strand Lifeguards to keep their beach safer, a second camera was put up at Blouberg, deemed one of Cape Town’s most dangerous beaches. It has helped with kitesurfer rescues and, in one case, ascertained that a flare that was sighted had in fact been fired from the beach, thus saving crews the trouble of launching for a futile search.
Recently a third camera has been made operational in Herolds Bay close to Wilderness. Possibly among the most dangerous beaches on the Garden Route, this is one of the spots where Station 23 has deployed a small rescue craft to allow quicker responses to a drowning in progress. As lifeguards are only on duty here during the season and rip currents are a constant danger, some out-of-the-box thinking was needed to get a rescuer to a person in a rip as fast as possible. Pink Rescue Buoys are deployed on the beach to assist in a bystander rescue (a number of lifeguards and NSRI rescue swimmers live here) and now we can monitor the beach from the NSRI Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in Cape Town or from a responder’s mobile phone.
Now, for the first time, responders can get an accurate up-to-the-second account of the status on scene while they are responding to Herolds Bay.
SURVIVAL SWIMMING CENTRES
Our first Survival Swimming Centre (SCC1) has now been operating for a term at Meiring Primary School in Riebeek-Kasteel. During this time, NSRI instructors have taught more than 400 lessons and 13 children have passed the Survival Swimming Course – this means they are able to control their breathing, orientate themselves in the water, float and move through the water for at least five metres.
As winter arrived, the air temperature dropped to below 10˚C in the valley and the water in the SSC1 dropped into the low teens, making it way too cold to swim in. This was quickly rectified by a heat pump that Fluidra donated, which raised the temperature of the water to a toasty 28˚C, allowing children and instructors back into the water during winter!
Using the lessons learnt during the build of SSC1, we have made some minor adjustments to SSC2 but the basic equipment will remain the same. It will be a 15 000-litre pool (filled with water donated by the local municipality) that will be topped up when needed from rainwater collected from the roof in a JoJo tank. The filtration and circulation systems, the monitoring of the water quality and temperature, as well as the camera systems are all top quality and mostly donated by caring companies involved in the industry.
The second Survival Swimming container.
If it weren’t for the incredible buy-in from this small group of companies and people who work for them, this project would not be possible. A special thanks to Delve Aquatic Systems, Dibana Logistics, Fluidra, Metalo, Mr Water Delivery, NCS Resins and Pools for Africa – without you this dream would not have become a reality.
And a huge thank you to Speedo Swim United who have come on-board as our first title sponsor for SSC2.
A truck delivers the container swimming pool.
