© picture alliance / NurPhoto | Jerome Gilles
The heat wave in France has already claimed the lives of at least 20 people who died from drowning. Marina Ferrari, Minister of Sports, Youth, and Social Life, announced this on Monday on France Inter.
With a total of 54 departments under a red alert and 35 others under an orange alert, more than 90% of the French population was exposed to extreme and exceptional heat on Tuesday. French Minister of Sports Marina Ferrari urges the public to exercise caution when seeking relief in the water. “It's not without risk to go swimming during such heat waves in unsupervised areas,” the minister said on the radio station France Inter.
In recent days, more lifeguards have already been deployed along the Atlantic coast, but the minister confirms that there's still a significant shortage of lifeguards. She aims to enhance the profession by, among other things, reforming the national lifeguard/first-aid certification program.
The high number of drowning deaths can also be linked to the lack of swimming lessons in schools. Ten percent of high schools in France do not have access to a swimming pool, and in France, eighty percent of swimming pools are more than 25 years old. “We have a problem with the maintenance of our swimming pools, particularly in rural areas,” the Minister of Sports and Youth admits. “As part of the Paris Olympics, a large-scale plan was launched for 10,000 sports facilities, some of which involved swimming pools.”
The minister also says he has urged the Agence nationale du sport—the French organization that helps coordinate sports policy, funding, and development at the national and local levels—to prioritize swimming pools in its investments.
Picture: © picture alliance / NurPhoto | Jerome Gilles