Nine Out of Ten Sydney Pools Do Not Meet Pool Safety Standards

At least nine out of ten backyard swimming pools in Sydney do not meet pool safety standards, with one council even recording a noncompliance rate of 98 per cent.

This comes after several incidents of toddler deaths in backyard pools were reported over the past five weeks.

The data obtained from 18 councils in the Sydney metropolitan area revealed that among the factors causing most pools to fail inspections include degraded locks, faulty self-closing gates and landscape features providing a leg-up for curious youngsters.

In 2015, a legislation to improve pool safety was amended as the state government promised a stronger regulatory framework for swimming pool barriers that helped minimise the risk of child drownings, but only a few councils do random inspections since the reforms did not demand councils to conduct random inspections. In most local government areas, private pools are only inspected at the invitation of homeowners.

In Liverpool, which does not carry out random compliance checks, just 160 pools were inspected in 2016, while in Blacktown, five fulltime pool certifiers inspected about 18,000 pools last year and 90 per cent failed initial inspection.

According to the Royal Life Saving National Drowning Report 2016, 83 children died in private swimming pools from 2002 to 2015 “” an average of just over five deaths a year.

However, in the past five weeks alone, four children died: 20-month-old Aria Dunn in Raby, two-year-old Vera Peacock in Macquarie Fields and 23-month-old Kellyville Ridge twins Robbie and Charli Manago.

Reports revealed that in 59 per cent of the cases, the victims were not supervised.

Royal Life Saving NSW’s senior research and policy officer Stacey Pidgeon pointed out that parents and pool owners must be vigilant, but she stressed that councils had to step up. “Councils have a role to play and some are more proactive than others,” Ms Pidgeon said.

Source: Dailytelegraph.com.au