With depressing regularity, tragic deaths of swimmers continue to be reported during the summer months. These tend to be young people swimming in cold water in rivers, lakes and reservoirs. Recently in the Yorkshire area, three such drownings have been reported involving swimmers aged 13, 15 and 16. I have noted that in the spot where I sometimes jump in the River Wharfe for a quick swim, the ‘no swimming’ sign pictured here has appeared sometime during the last few months. While the sentiments of trying to prevent further drownings is commendable, the method is flawed. Signs are cheap and they give the impression that something is being done, but treating rivers as sewers and putting up ‘no swimming’ signs is no way forward. Children need to be taught how to swim both within indoor pools as well as how to enter and swim in cold outdoor water. This will take significant investment and commitment, but this is the way to reduce the number of drownings that are seen too often. It would also allow children to do what most want and will do anyway. Who could blame them?
Since this posting, there has been press coverage of similar ‘no swimming’ approaches taken in Bristol and Cambridge which has drawn substantial reaction including ‘protest swims’ in Bristol and 8,000 signatures in Cambridge:
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristol-harbour-wild-swimmers-stage-5572282
An Anthropology of Swimming 