Lifeguards a luxury in Chennai’s gated communities, hotels

CHENNAI: While gated communities offer their residents a host of amenities, something as basic as a pool lifeguard remains a ‘luxury’. Experts say several gated communities in the city often do not recruit certified lifeguards and hire someone who knows swimming to watch over residents to cut costs. “Pool maintenance workers produce fake lifeguard certificates.
Since they are not trained, they will not be able to save lives,” said Tarun Murugesh, a member of Rashtriya Life Saving Society India. Latha K, a resident of a gated community in Thoraipakkam, said, “We don’t have lifeguards. The pool maintenance guys are always stationed by the pool. Several kids use the pool and so I enquired with the security team if he would be able to act quickly should someone be in danger.
They assured me that they know swimming.” Experts say generally one lifeguard stationed by a pool is sufficient and the ratio is one lifeguard for every 12 people. However, bigger pools need two or more lifeguards, which is not the case with many apartment complexes. The swimming pool license, which is valid for two years, needs to be renewed upon expiry to ensure there is no penalty imposed by the CMDA leading to the closure of the pool.
To make sure the renewal process is smooth, gated communities buy new safety equipment or upgrade their existing ones. The Chennai Corporation is supposed to conduct audits of swimming pools in apartment complexes and renew licences if rules including appointment of lifeguards are followed. Initially the builder gets the licence, but after this the apartments have to renew it. But this is not done, said Tarun Murugesh, a member of Rashtriya Life Saving Society India.