If forecasts are correct, we will have a warm and dry summer for the third year in a row. As a result, many children and young people will seek out the water. In swimming pools, but also outdoors. This can be dangerous.
The swimming pools are open again
By now, Dutch swimming pools have reopened. The KNZB is asking swimming pools to double the amount of chlorine to combat the coronavirus. So people can swim freely again, both indoors and outdoors.
No swimming certificate
Many newcomers are less able to swim than people with a Dutch background. They often do not have a swimming certificate. This may be because newcomers:
- Cannot always afford swimming lessons.
- Do not know where children can take swimming lessons. For example, because information about this is only available in Dutch.
- Come from a country where swimming lessons and mixed-gender swimming are not common.
What can you do?
Swimming is fun, and it looks easy. But it is not. That is why it is important to tell people more about the dangers of water and how important it is to be able to swim before jumping into the water.
Pharos, together with GGD GHOR Nederland, VeiligheidNL, Nationale Raad Zwemveiligheid and COA, helps municipalities and professionals in healthcare, social services and education provide residents with more information about water safety. They have developed various materials for this purpose:
- An updated 'Water Safety for Newcomers guide'. It contains practical tips, advice and information about what you can do to prevent drownings.
- The infographic ‘Swimming in rivers and jumping from bridges: extremely dangerous!’ in Arabic and Tigrinya.
- Vlogs about water safety. Yasir from Somalia, Muayad from Syria and Robiel from Eritrea play the leading roles in the ‘Yasir Hierrr’ vlogs. The three friends experience all kinds of things in the Netherlands and encounter a lot of water. Watch the videos on YouTube.