MOSSEL BAY NEWS - There is an urgent need for a heated public swimming pool in Mossel Bay, leaders in aquatic sports told the Mossel Bay Advertiser this week.
Some of them travel to George for training because of the lack of a facility locally.
There is not even an open-air public swimming pool in Mossel Bay, which would help the swimming and aquatic sport fraternities, let alone a heated public pool.
Swimming instructors use the open-air Park Primary School pool and the Diaz Water Park indoor heated pool for their lessons.
Mossel Bay Surf Lifesaving Club (MBSLC) Nipper officer Wade Shaw says he would like to see KwaNonqaba children trained in swimming so they have the opportunity to become lifesavers one day. "We need someone to build a pool in KwaNonqaba."
The MBSLC, a non-profit company, has a development arm, dedicated to upliftment.
Shaw says there are children from KwaNonqaba who watch the Nippers practising each week and he would like them to join in but they need to learn to swim first.
Mossel Bay swimming coach Fransie Swart, who has been training children for more than 20 years, says: "There is an urgent need for a swimming pool. I don't care where it is established. It must happen."
Swart currently uses the Park Primary School pool for which swimmers must pay a fee. She said she struggles to secure adequate time at the pool for her swimmers because she has to fit in at times when the Park swimmers are not using it.
"There are many children who want to swim. I would like to train more of them, but cannot, because of time constraints at the pool. For my senior swimmers, for example, I only get the pool at 16:30.
"We have had meetings with the municipality in the past, but were told we don't need a pool because we are at the sea."
In winter swimming instructors make use of the Diaz Water Park heated pool for their lessons.
But the Diaz pool is shallow - about 1m throughout - and too murky for scuba diving practice, for example.
Mossel Bay scuba diving instructor trainer and course director, Ken Walmsley, says he and his Mossel Bay divers must go to George to do pool training. Because of the lack of visibility in the water he cannot use the Diaz pool. There is a heated pool at the Hartenbos ATKV resort, but this is also not a public facility.
Walmsley said: "Mossel Bay wants to position itself as a sports venue and we have the annual Sports Festival here. But to be a serious contender for events we need a heated swimming pool."
When the Mossel Bay Advertiser contacted former municipality spokesperson Harry Hill about the problem of the lack of a pool in 2016 he said residents should attend the annual IDP meetings to highlight the need for a swimming pool.
The municipality uses input from residents at these meetings to plan its budget. The IDP meetings have been held over the past two weeks and conclude on Thursday, 3 May with the meetings at Greenhaven and Little Brak.
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