The General Manager, Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), Mr Oluwadamilola Emmanuel, has said that the agency trained 300 pupils in the last three years to reduce the incidence of children drowning in Nigerian waters.
Emmanuel made the disclosure during the third edition of LASWA’s advocacy programme tagged, “The Lagos Water Savvy Kids Programme,” which was held in partnership with State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and the Dolphin Swim School, in Epe, Lagos.
The General Manager said that training in swimming would help to reduce the incidence of children drowning during water accidents and improve use of water transportation.
Emmanuel said the training was to instill water confidence in pupils by giving them theoretical and practical knowledge on waterways safety, swimming skills and basic survival techniques in an emergency.
He said, “A total of 50 students from five public schools in riverine communities in the Epe axis of Lagos were selected to participate in this year’s edition.
“With this training, school children using waterways transport will be more confident, conscious of their safety, and be self-reliant in an emergency.
“There is a need to increase swimming culture among children and we have deemed it fit to take this to public schools and to all the divisions of the state.
“The training of kids on how to swim is not only done by Lagos State Waterways Authority, the Sport Commission is also involved.
“There has been a call to all stakeholders to create more awareness and encourage the swimming culture as well as ensure that there are always water guards around the pools.
“This is the third edition, and we have taken the exercise to Ibeshe, Ojo and Epe.”
The LASWA boss promised to continue to engage schools, teachers and parents to understand that the programme is safe, and healthwise, advisable.
He promised to look into inclusion of teachers along riverine areas in the training.
The Education Secretary, Epe Local Government, Mr Idowu Shittu, commended LASWA for organising the swimming programme for pupils.
The representative of SUBEB in Epe, Mrs Temidayo Oyeniran, expressed her gratitude for the swimming training for the kids and pleaded for its extension to teachers.
