In the Eure, it is a 2-year-old girl, placed in a foster family, who accidentally died last Thursday in a private swimming pool, near Louviers. The same week, three children drowned in Indre-et-Loire. Each year, such tragedies occur, despite the messages of prevention. The Deputy Minister for Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, went to Antibes last Friday to promote the open water swimming buoy, designed so that swimmers can rest and be spotted by boats or rescuers. According to her, 197 drowning deaths occurred during the months of June and July. A figure down compared to 2019 - 251 deaths between June 1 and July 26 - but which remains to be qualified since all the swimming pools and beaches were not as accessible as last year, in the context of the epidemic of Covid-19.
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This ministerial trip is part of the drowning prevention plan and the development of aquatic ease, launched in April 2019. Intended initially for children, the plan also wants to establish a "culture of transgenerational water. ". The Minister wanted children to be able to familiarize themselves with water from the age of 4, during school time, to fight against drowning. An objective motivated by the alarmist figures of the Public Health France survey of 2018, carried out every three years: 322 accidental drownings recorded in children under 6 years old.
In Saint-Aignan (Loir-et-Cher), the mayor, Éric Carnat, was one of the first to respond to the call for projects launched by the government. Last June, a hundred children from a private school and a public school were able to benefit from one session per day of aquatic ease for two weeks - the "blue classes". "I didn't think the level would be so low," explains Rémi Bottin, head of the city's youth and sports department. We have seen children who, even at 10, were afraid of water. But at the end of the month, the results were convincing. ” At the end of these "blue classes", the children obtained a certificate of aquatic ease. The goal being that they can, from 4 years old, be able to get back to shore without knowing how to swim, in the event of an accidental fall.
There are no longer any lifeguards in France. Therein lies the problem, the training is too expensive and too long!
Jean-Michel Lapoux, Secretary General of the Federation of LifeguardsTo date, around 5,000 children have been able to follow these sessions, 55 projects have been carried out, and the feedback is “very positive” according to the ministry. “We are no longer in experimentation, the method is proven. The goal now is to deploy the device throughout the country. ” Now placed under the tutelage of the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, Roxana Maracineanu could accelerate the rapprochement with the school world. “The minister preaches for intensive learning and new training for teaching staff. The rapprochement with the National Education will allow us to include a sports ritual from primary school. ” Roxana Maracineanu hopes to see 20,000 children acquire the certificate by the end of the year, and 700 lifeguards able to train teachers in the implementation of blue classes.
Prevention posters and radio spots
On the side of the Federation of Lifeguards (FMNS), the record of the Minister is far from being welcomed, and Jean-Michel Lapoux, Secretary General, has not faded for a year. “There are no longer any lifeguards in France. Therein lies the problem, the training is too expensive and too long! ” To this, the minister's office replied that it was in the process of finalizing “discussions with the trade unions” to make the profession more accessible, ensuring that the fight against the shortage of lifeguards is one of the main axes of the plan. But the FMNS is asking for something concrete: training that can be prepared in evening classes or during the holidays, which would allow young people to follow it in parallel with their studies.
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However, the ministry remains worried about an increase in drownings this summer which would affect all age groups and claims to have distributed prevention posters throughout the coast. Two radio spots are also broadcast to "break a popular belief according to which we signal ourselves when we are drowning, whereas it often goes unnoticed."
