Thousands of Brussels residents currently have insufficient access to swimming lessons. Long waiting lists, overcrowded swimming pools and schools struggling to find suitable swimming slots demonstrate that Brussels is facing a structural shortage of swimming facilities. This poses a challenge not only for sport and recreation, but also for water safety.
Learning to swim is a basic skill. Yet in Brussels, this is becoming less and less the norm. For example, 700 adults are waiting for a place on a swimming course, and schools are also finding it very difficult to secure sufficient swimming facilities. Pupils often have to travel long distances to reach a swimming pool, meaning that valuable teaching time is lost.
When access to swimming lessons is restricted, the consequences extend beyond sport alone. Fewer swimming lessons also mean less water safety.
Brussels needs additional swimming facilities. New, permanent swimming pools remain essential in this regard. They form the backbone of a sustainable swimming policy and are necessary to meet growing demand in the long term.
But building new swimming pools takes time. Planning permission, funding and the construction work itself often take several years. Children who are unable to take swimming lessons today cannot wait until that new infrastructure is in place.
That is why Swimwise advocates also focusing on temporary and relocatable swimming facilities. In Flanders, mobile swimming pools and relocatable indoor swimming pools are already in use or being prepared in various municipalities, including Mechelen. They provide extra capacity for school swimming, swimming lessons and recreational swimming, for example during renovation works or in places where demand exceeds the existing supply.
Brussels, too, can make use of this approach. Temporary swimming facilities are not a substitute for permanent swimming pools, but a clever addition that quickly creates extra swimming space whilst new infrastructure is being planned and built
The challenge in Brussels is clear. Whilst new swimming pools are being planned, an entire generation of children and adults must not be left behind. That is why it is important to start working on additional swimming capacity today, with solutions that can be implemented quickly and complement future infrastructure.
Investing in additional swimming facilities is therefore not only an investment in sport, but also in safety, health and equal opportunities for every resident of Brussels.
Please leave your details so that we
can contact you for more information.
Today, Swimwise is drawing extra attention to drowning prevention. Find out how learning to swim and water safety save lives.
