The City of Ottawa wading pool program offers a variety of fun water activities throughout the summer, including Waterplay, informal swimming lessons, special events and major events across the city. They are all about children having fun, and are proud to play a part in providing children access to a healthy and active summer. Above all, they provide children with important water safety messages, so that they are aware of the potential dangers of water activities and how to avoid them.
Here are some tips for safe water play:
Swim with a Buddy: encourages children to never swim alone, as well as the importance of informing their parent or guardian that they are going in the water.
Within Arms Reach: teaches parents and guardians that when supervising their children in the water, they must be within arms reach, meaning should their child require their help they must be able to quickly assist them.
Safe Entries: teaches children that there is more than one way to enter water, whether it be a lake or one of our wading pools. It is important to select the appropriate entry based on the depth of the water and the child’s swimming ability. At city wading pools, children are not able to dive in because of the depth, therefore they must either step in , or for younger children, they can sit on the step and sit into the water. This is also important when swimming in an open body of water. Unlike wading pools and indoor pools, knowing the depth of the water as well as what is on the bottom is very difficult in lakes and oceans. Therefore, when entering lakes and oceans it is important to always take precautions. An example of this would be to first do a foot first step in entry to determine the depth of the water as well as the nature of the bottom.
The most recent statistics show that roughly 24 toddlers (ages 1-4), die every year in Canada from a water fatality. Nearly half of these drownings in Canada have occurred because of lack of supervision and proper safety precautions. The safety messages listed above are examples of ways that we can prevent this from happening. A couple of other ways to reduce the number of drownings is to know your child’s swimming ability, provide them with swimming aids such as noodles, flutter boards and lifejackets/PFDs, and most importantly to register them in swimming lessons, as this is the number one drowning prevention step that you can take.
A final note on water safety for the summer is in regards to boating. Some important things to remember, for both children as well as adults, is to never boat at night (or even in the evening where there is little light), to never boat alone or without telling someone where you are going, to always have an extra paddle, flashlight and bail out bucket with you, to never consume alcohol before or during boating, and most importantly to always wear a lifejacket or PFD.
The City of Ottawa would like to wish you and your children an amazing summer, hope to see you out at their wading pools ! More information regarding Waterplay, the Junior Programmer Mentorship Program, special events, Parkticipate, and important dates can be found online at http://www.ottawa.ca/en/rec_culture/park_facility/parks/splash_wading/index.html.
Questions can be directed toseasonalrecreation@ottawa.ca.
