Water Safety
Water safety
Regional and remote areas can be often have limited program availability, lifesaving services, mobile phone service and emergency response times are longer.
But we know that communities in regional and remote areas often undertake more activities around water close to home, and there are a few simple safety tips to help keep communities and families safer around water.
While it is not always feasible to fence off large water bodies, there are some simple measures that can make the environment as safer. Ensure children are actively supervised and create child safe play areas to restrict access to water, especially in rural communities. Child safe play areas restrict a child’s access to water by creating a barrier between the child and a drowning hazard.
Risk factors
- Geographical remoteness
- Unrestricted access to natural waterways, especially for children
- Increased emergency response times
- Increased accessibility to water bodies on properties
- Limited mobile phone service
- Alcohol consumption
How to stay safe
- Actively supervise children around water
- Create a child safe play area
- Cover water storage (eg, buckets, tanks, wells, troughs)
- Tell someone where you are going and when you will be back
- Go with a friend
- Avoid alcohol and drugs around water
- Wear a lifejacket
Swim to Survive
Balanced Boat Alliance’s Swim and Survive program ensures children all over Uganda get the very best swimming and water safety education.
Join our pool of over 200 Swim and Survive kids to develop the next generation of safer, confident and competent swimmers.
Swim and Survive is a fun and dynamic swimming and water safety program that focuses on the development of swimming, personal survival, basic rescue and lifesaving skills. Swim and Survive aims to provide individuals with the required skills to lead safe and active lives in and around water.
No matter the level of experience, Swim and Survive is inclusive for everyone at any ability to learn these essential skills.
The comprehensive and balanced curriculum will guide learning through progressive steps, providing an opportunity to grasp the fundamental skills through to advancing to more challenging skills increasing in endurance and complexity.
Water Safety Instructor Courses
Find out how to become an instructor of swimming and water safety to help children, adults, or people with special needs or different backgrounds learn a life skill and find their love of swimming.
Balanced Boat Alliance provides a number of Swimming and Water Safety instructor courses. These courses are for those wanting to enter the aquatic industry as a teacher of swimming and water safety or for those wishing to extend their skills and knowledge.
These courses give you the essential competencies to teach swimming and water safety to children and adults in swimming pools and confined natural shallow water venues.
The range of extension courses available include:
- Instructor of Infant and Preschool Aquatics. This gives you the essential competencies to plan and deliver safe and enjoyable aquatic activity programs for children between the ages of six months and three years.
- Instructor of Adults. This gives you the specific skills and teaching strategies to teach adults.
- Instructor of Aquatics – Access and Inclusion. This gives you the specific skills and teaching strategies required to deliver programs and services that meet the needs of a diverse range of people in an aquatic environment. It enables you to effectively provide aquatics access and inclusion to all people regardless of disability, chronic condition, age, and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
- Instructor of Competitive Strokes. This gives you the specific skills and teaching strategies to bridge the gap between swim teaching and swim coaching.
Boating and Using Watercraft
Africans enjoy boating, canoeing, kayaking among other water activities for various reasons, these include, transportation, fishing and recreational purposes.
Drowning is the leading cause of Boating-related fatalities. On average, 3,000 people drown in Uganda annually. Placing Uganda among those countries with the highest drowning rates. It’s also important to note that some drowning cases go undocumented due to various challenges such as, remoteness, lack of communication systems, lack of structured statistics accountability among many.
Risk factors
- Operator inattention or distraction
- Inexperience or lack of knowledge
- Intoxication
- Excessive speed
- Poor weather conditions
- Failure to follow safely regulations.
- Poor boat maintenance
- Crowded waters
- Collision with objects
How to stay safe
- Boating accidents can be avoided through proper education, stick to the safety protocols, and always maintain awareness of environment and vessel operation.
- Be mindful of weight distribution on the boat, urge people to part-take
- Avoid excessive loading as this can lead a boat to capsize
- Keep Maintenance up to date
- Follow speed limits
- Check weather updates
- Avoid alcohol and drug use
- Wear a life jacket
- Take a boating safety course and first aid.
- Deployment of marine police on water bodies for regular patrols.
The Lifejacket
A life jackets is the most important safety item on a boat, and it must be worn by everyone on the boat at all times. Here are some of the reasons why;
- Prevents drowning: Lfejackets keep you afloat and it provides essential buoyancy in case you fall overboard or if the boat is capsized, significantly reducing the risk of drowning.
- Required by Law: many countries, states or regions have laws requiring lifejackets for all passengers including children.
- Increased visibility: especially commercial lifejackets are typically bright in color, making it easier for recuers to spot casualties in the water in case of an emergency.
- Provide confidence: wearing a lifejacket gives peace of mind, knowing that you have an added layer of protection if something goes wrong.
- Works well in all water conditions: whether in calm, or rough waters, a lifejacket helps you to stay afloat in all conditions even if one is not a strong swimmer.
- Wearing a lifejacket is a simple, effective way to significantly increase the safety on the water. It’s essential for everyone to wear a well fitted Lifejacket to your size for your protection whether you are cruising, fishing or just relaxing on the boat.