In today’s apartment complexes, swimming pools have become more than a mere luxury. Most apartment buyers today, looks for a swimming pool in the list of amenities the builders are providing as a part of a housing project. However, as we described in our previous blog; 11 Safety Tips for Apartment Swimming Pools, proper safety design aspects and regulations are not being adhered to while building the pools and also while maintaining them.
In the present scenario, the onus largely comes on us, to be demanding buyers and responsible residents. As responsible residents, we should help the apartment management committee in putting together proper safety regulations around the swimming pool and also help in up keeping the same. As demanding buyers, we should not look at a swimming pool as only a checklist item in a housing project, or give in to the obvious visual appeal, but also examine if proper safety measures are being put into place by the builder.
Below are a few simple design aspects which should be looked into while building a swimming pool:
- It should not be located at a secluded end of the housing society. It’s best to locate the pool in an area where there is regular movement and traffic, so that people can come to help in case somebody is in distress.
- There should be a sufficiently high fencing around the pool with a locked gate, so that children cannot access the pool unsupervised. Or the access to the pool should be through clubhouse or other facility which has restricted access.
- There should be anti-skid tiles near around the pool.
- Use non slip materials for the ladders
- Pool ladders should have wide steps, with rails small enough for children to grasp. It’s better to have ladders on both ends of pool
- The point where water level deepens should be clearly marked
- There should be proper lighting around the pool
If you have just bought an apartment, then most probably your apartment complex is under construction, or construction has not started yet. Ask your builder about the safety measures around the swimming pool. You can also look at the swimming pool design/architecture diagrams and check if there any obvious safety regulations which the builder is not adhering to. If you find that the builder is not paying enough attention to safety around the pool, then take up the matter directly with them and try to come to a resolution.
Consider sharing the link of this blog on your ADDA forum to spread awareness regarding this topic within your apartment complex owners group. If your Apartment complex / housing society is still not online on ADDA, you can create one absolutely free on www.apartmentadda.com and start communicating with your fellow apartment owners. It’s much easier to discuss matters regarding your apartment complex, exchange opinion, conduct polls on matters which need resolution, etc. using various in built features of ADDA software.
It’s usually just wonderful to have a swimming pool in your apartment complex. It’s blissful to be able to jump into your exclusive pool during those hot summer days and splash around or to have a quite swim and unwind after a hectic day of work. Swimming can be the perfect morning exercise and boost to kick-start a new day. It’s thus very sad when we have accidents related to swimming pools. Providing the due attention to safety by builders and buyers can prevent them to a long extent.
A little amount of heed early on can go miles in preventing accidents later on!