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ISLA warns Phuket over sea safety

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PHUKET, 23 May 2018: Phuket’s holiday makers who love to take a dip in the ocean could be at serious risk according to The International Surf Lifesaving Association.

The association called on the island’s provincial government to fund and activate teams of professional trained lifesavers to patrol the island’s west coast beaches.

In a document presented to the island’s governor, 14 May, ISLA’s representative in Phuket, Daren Jenner, said it was imperative for the safety of both foreign and Thai visitors that professionally trained teams of lifesavers be mobilised.

The ISLA document is critical of a plan to turn over funds to the Or Bor Tor (Subdistrict Administration Organisation) that it claims will “perpetuate the current deadly cycle of inexperienced non certified lifeguards.”

Jenner said “the Phuket Provincial Government is playing a deadly game that will cost tourists and locals their lives.”

A lack of funding for a long-term solution has caused lapses in safety cover at popular beaches.

Jenner who is an International Marine Safety Officer and Thailand Section Chief for ISLA said the solution lies in “creating a new, unified professional lifeguard force for all of Phuket”.

He claimed that for the last seven years, the current fragmented lifeguard system has failed Phuket’s visitors and locals time and time again.

During the heavy monsoon season, June to October, Phuket’s west coast beaches are red flagged due to strong winds, deadly rip tides and currents.

Chinese, Russians and Thais are the most likely to drown here in Phuket during the monsoon season.

A recent audit of Phuket Beach safety conducted by the International Surf Lifesaving Association, produced a grade of “Fail – Unsafe” for 17 of the 18 beaches evaluated on the island.

The ISLA ‘white paper’ suggested that under-funded lifeguard contracts awarded for a few months at a time were not the solution.

“If the tender process is to work on the island, contracts must last four to five years at a minimum, to provide adequate time for lifeguards to upgrade their skills.”

ISLA’s proposed improvement plan, reviewed and approved not only by the ISLA, but also by 95% of the former lifeguards recommended that the Phuket governor mobilise a force of 220 freshly trained and Internationally Certified Ocean Lifeguards.

“Any further delays by Phuket Provincial authorities in getting these lifeguards back to work will cost lives, said Jenner.

“The horrifying scenes of drowning we have been seeing over the past few months will only worsen, and will play out again and again on social media and the international news, until adequate funding is provided for ocean lifeguards.”

Officials privately say their hands are tied due to insufficient funding, but the island’s authorities could approve the use of a provincial tax that all visitors pay based on overnight hotel stays. The tax was created to fund improvements and put in places services that would enhance the island’s tourism appeal.

Providing an island wide permanent and professionally managed lifesaving service would fall within that parameter.

Statistics on drowning at holiday destinations in Thailand are sketchy, but a website that monitors foreign fatalities in Thailand suggests there were 101 cases of drowning from 2015 to 2018.

Thaiger, an information and news website based in Phuket, indicated that in the first eight months of 2017 there were 294 marine rescues on the island of which 265 involved foreigners. In 2016 there were 761 lifesaving rescues and seven fatalities.

The most risking beaches for swimming during the monsoon season are Karon and Surin.  Visitors should under no circumstances enter the sea if red flags are flying.

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