The Lifesaving Power of Public Pools

Far from just being a fun way to cool down on a hot summer day, public pools can help children learn key skills that could save their lives, writes Mara Gay in The New York Times.

An estimated 4,000 people die by drowning in the United States each year—an average of 11 every day. Yet “the United States is, for a majority of its citizens, a swimming desert where, according to a Red Cross survey, more than half of the population lacks basic swimming abilities and millions are without access to safe places to enter the water.”

Now, a coalition of experts published the nation’s first Water Safety Action Plan, “a much-needed, 10-year national road map to reduce drowning.” As Gay explains, “Some recommendations, like increasing the use of life jackets in lakes, oceans and rivers, could be carried out by states and local governments. Others — like the creation of a public health surveillance system to collect better data around drowning — are worthy of urgent action from the White House and Congress.”

Gay suggests U.S. cities should also build more public pools, create other safe places to swim, and subsidize swim lessons and support lifeguarding jobs. Of the more than 10 million pools in the United States, only 309,000 are public, forcing people into crowded beaches and sometimes dangerous bodies of water. “Like libraries and parks, [public pools] are an essential piece of social infrastructure in a democracy.”