More municipal bathhouses before registering children unaccompanied by an adult, to avoid messes and drowning accidents. In Halmstad, it will be mandatory from 2 May. – We have seen an increased problem with a lack of swimming skills, says Lovisa Aldrin who is director of Halmstad’s swimming facilities. Especially on weekends and holidays, the waves can be high in Halmstad’s municipal swimming hall. Therefore, compulsory registration is now being introduced for children between 12 and 17 years old who bathe alone. Similar systems are already in place in several other municipal swimming pools. Among others in Angered in Gothenburg, Hyllie in Malmö and in Landskrona. Through the registration, which is done on site or via the web, the pool attendants can quickly get in touch with the parents if something happens. Swimming skills are falling According to the Swedish National Agency for Education’s survey, seven percent of students in grade six in the 21/22 school year could not swim 200 meters, which is the requirement for middle school. The Swedish Lifesaving Society wants to see efforts to counter the trend: – First of all, we want the municipalities to do a survey to find out what it looks like with swimming skills locally in each municipality. The risk is that we will get large sections of society that do not learn to swim, says Mikael Olausson, area manager for lifesaving. In Halmstad, the new system of registering young people who bathe will not be introduced until about two weeks from now, but already many people have signed up. – We hope it will increase security for everyone and make it clear what rules exist, says Lovisa Aldrin.
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