Pool fencing issues !

For decades the safety of home swimming pools has waxed and wained as state governments and local councils argued over who was responsible for policing the fencing issue.   Installing an in-ground pool requires a development application and the provision of safety fencing to an Australian standard forms part of that consent.   The problem is that - in most cases - there is no followup to see that this fencing is properly maintained in later years.

Now a new pool safety issue is concerning the authorities.   Each year more and more inflatable pools are being offered and these do not require any sort of approval - provided the water depth does not exceed three hundred millimetres.     They are often referred to as " splasher pools " - and any depth of water is a deadly danger for unsupervised little kids.   Last year, twenty-one children in the age bracket 0 - 4 drowned in Australian swimming pools.

This year the range of pool offers on the Internet is increasing.   For just a few dollars, families can have a pool in their backyard with a water depth to nearly a metre and few - if any - of these will be installed under the regime of a council DA.  It is proposed that all such pools should have a statutory requirement to include a warning that council approved safety fencing is required.

These pools are manufactured as temporary structures.   Families erect them and fill them with water in the height of summer, and usually empty them and store them away when the swimming season ends.   The danger is that for days - and sometimes weeks - they stand in the yard unfenced and pose a danger to any kid fascinated by the chance to play in water.

This fencing warning is probably a good idea, but the questions remains - How many families will ignore it and fill the pool anyway ?    The answer is - probably the great majority.    We could be on the brink of a sharp increase in child drownings.

There is another problem that is going unnoticed.   The water in swimming pools needs to be carefully conditioned to keep it safe.   Pool water needs to be constantly filtered and have it's ph levels checked and Chlorine added. Most of these inflatable pools come with grossly insufficient filtering equipment and in the smaller pools - this is missing entirely on the assumption that the pool will be emptied after use.   In reality, many of these pools will contain untreated water for days - and even weeks - and pose a health danger to users.

So far, the only reaction by the authorities seems to be the suggestion of forcing pool manufacturers or their distributors to place that fencing warning on the product.    We have come a long way in forcing the owners of both in-ground and above ground swimming pools to address the fence safety issue, but now we are on the cusp of a huge expansion of cheap, inflatable pools.  

Managing this new area of risk to little kids does not seem to be getting serious attention !