‘Urgent need to make water safety No. 1 priority’

The unfortunate death of Saurin Nayankumar Patel (28) and Anshul Pareshbhai Shah (32) once again highlighted the need to raise awareness about being safe around water, especially during the summer months.

Patel and Shah, who hailed from Ahmedabad in the Indian State of Gujarat, were swept away by waves at Auckland's Piha Beach on January 21’ 2023.

In recent days, there has been a surge in cases of emergencies around water bodies, including fatalities and people going missing.

Indian Weekender spoke to Rob McGregor, spokesperson of  Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ ), to know what needs to be done to prevent tragedies like Piha in future.

SLSNZ is a charity and the national association representing 74 Surf Life Saving Clubs across Aotearoa and over 4500 volunteer Surf Lifeguards who patrol at over 80 locations through summer as well as 40 Emergency Call Out Squads throughout the year. It has been providing surf lifesaving services to NZ communities for over 100 years. It is the leading beach and coastal safety, drowning prevention and rescue authority in Aotearoa. Around 19,000 people are members of SLSNZ. The 74 clubs are grouped into local regions for consultation and program delivery and are supported by Surf Life Saving NZ staff.

According to McGregor, “There is an urgent need to make ‘Water Safety’ the number one priority in NZ over the summer months. NZ boasts an extensive 15,000 km coastline, and growing the reach of Surf Life Saving, and other water safety focused organisations is the key. We have good messaging and an incredible reach into our communities through our volunteers but expanding this is the key.”

When explicitly asked if he thinks there is a need for more patrolling on beaches, especially during summer as more people tend to visit beaching during summertime, McGregor says, “Yes, most definitely. We have been steadily growing our capability and reach, and we need to continue to do this into the future if we don’t want more tragedies on our beaches.” 

McGregor also feels that even the government should be playing an active part in raising awareness about water safety and that more funding should be allocated.

 “Of course, we can always do with more funding as this will, in turn, support more volunteers. We have a positive relationship with the government and are working towards a future increase in funding. We also have community education programmes that need support to spread the message further,” McGregor said.