AusLeisure

Huggies have launched a safe water initiative to keep public swimming pools clean while also giving parents an incentive to enrol their children in swim lessons.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 2,000 pairs of Huggies Little Swimmers swim pants have been given to swim teachers across New Zealand to issue to babies at the beginning of their first lesson.

The summer months are seen as the most challenging period for hygiene in public pools from Whangarei to Invercargill, with the frequency of soiling incidents in the water peaking due to the surge in swimmers.

As parents are urged to get their children familiar with aquatic environments at an early age, Huggies supplier Kimberly-Clark started a safe water initiative to keep public pools clean while also giving parents an incentive to enrol their youngsters in swimming lessons.

‘Code brown’ faecal incidents in public pools create a significant challenge for pools as, needing to be cleaned properly, they can potentially closing the pool for 24 hours.

A series of high profile ‘code brown’ incidents at the Southland Aquatic Centre/ Splash Palace during February and March this year highlighted this problem, while one Auckland pool reported four soiling incidents in one week in November 2014.

The Huggies initiative has seen free waterproof nappies be issued to every child under 18 months enrolled in baby and toddler swim lessons at participating swim schools in the first school term.

YMCA swim schools in Auckland, CLM Swim Magic swim schools covering Whangarei to Nelson, 12 council-run swim schools in Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill, and Napier Aquatic have all taken part.

Haydn Wilton, who runs the swim programme at Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre, hopes the initiative will keep parents informed about preparing their kids for the water.

Wilton explained “obviously no one comes to the pool with the intention of accidents happening but children are children and it will happen so it's about trying to educate parents."

"There are too many children that can't swim competently.

"It can't be underestimated. There are bodies of water everywhere so it's a life skill that needs to be taught."

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