BAHRAIN’S pioneer water safety agency is planning to train more lifeguards to increase the safety of beaches and avert drowning deaths.
Royal Life Saving Bahrain (RLSB) general manager Sam Rahman told the GDN that their team had made 411 rescues from six semi-private beaches over the last 15 months.
They hope to extend their lifeguard services to beaches across Bahrain, while recruiting more trained volunteers to work alongside them, to boost the safety of the facilities.
According to Mr Rahman, 14 new lifeguards have been recruited for the upcoming summer season.
“Since November 2021, we have registered 487,621 visitors to the beaches that we cover, and during that time, 28,514 preventative actions were performed by the lifeguards,” Mr Rahman told the GDN.
“A total of 512 incidents requiring first-aid – ranging from cuts to heart attacks – were encountered during the period, and 411 rescues were performed.
“There were zero fatalities at the beaches we cover, which is our goal at all bodies of water.
“We have trained lifeguards at six semi-private beaches and plans are underway to increase their presence across all public beaches.
“Our mission is to promote safe enjoyment of recreation in water, build cohesive communities, enable economic development and save lives.”
RLSB was founded by Shaikha Nayla bint Hamad bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa in 2016 to prevent drowning-related deaths and injuries as well as educate and advocate a safer aquatic environment for citizens and residents in line with international standards.
According to Mr Rahman, stronger community partnership, educational programmes and increased water-safety courses have contributed to a drop in drownings in Bahrain in the last few years. However, he asserted that more efforts were needed to encourage informed decision making and promote safe recreation in water.
The GDN reported in July last year that the country witnessed seven fatal drowning tragedies in 2020 and five in 2021, alongside four non-fatal incidents in 2020 and one in 2021.
Mr Rahman added that seven drownings were registered by them last year, though official statistics on water-related incidents are unavailable in Bahrain.
“Year-on-year, there has been a drop and the World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies drowning as being entirely preventable,” said Mr Rahman.
“From our follow-up, we understand that there were seven drowning deaths last year and we believe one life lost is too many.
“There has been a shift as more people are now engaging in water sports and activities and our concern is how to make it safer and ensure people know how to keep themselves and their families safe.”
The GDN, in December, reported that the RLSB launched a Safer Community Partnership campaign to empower people with the skills, knowledge and confidence to be everyday lifesavers. The scheme also supports other initiatives including beach clean-ups, first-aid training, as well as improving the survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
Shaikha Nayla had earlier said that RLSB had organised 20,000 workshops, helped provide training to 400 hotels and clubs, ran special courses for 500 children and trained 26 full-time lifeguards over the past five years.
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