Missing lifeguards

The deaths of Mervin Sanderson, 54, schoolboy Marcus Zephryn and 19-year-old Quintan Barnett show the hazards of the water affect young and old alike.

What is particularly distressing is that these deaths come one month after four persons drowned over a single weekend in August.

In the case of all three incidents last week, swimmers appeared to have been bathing in areas not patrolled by State-sanctioned lifeguards, namely Balandra, Mathura and Macueripe.

Citizens must exercise caution at all times at beaches and take responsibility for their personal security, especially where there are no lifeguards on duty.

According to the Ministry of National Security, the Lifeguard Services Division (LSD) has lifeguards on duty at only ten beaches, from 10 am to 5.30 pm. The beaches are at Maracas Bay, Tyrico Bay, Las Cuevas, Salybia, Toco, Mayaro, Manzanilla, Los Iros, Vessigny and Quinam.

The ministry has urged the public to use these guarded beaches during the times specified and when a lifeguard is present.

This must be complied with.

But it is clear that even at patrolled beaches there are challenges, as noted by Augustus Sylvester, president of the Lifeguard branch of the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW). In August, he warned of a severe shortage of staff and equipment when two people drowned at Coconut Grove, Mayaro, that month.

“We are so short-staffed that if there was a lifeguard on duty at the time, he would have had to patrol an area about the size of Maracas Bay all by himself,” Sylvester said. Indeed, lifeguards have long complained over a range of issues.

These have included delays in timely payment of wages, to allegations of abuse of power by law enforcement officers.

In April, lifeguards stationed at Maracas Bay said they were fedup of conditions under which they were being forced to work.

Anthony Paul, lifeguard, acting instructor and shop steward for the NUGFW detailed a litany of woes.

Paul said lifeguards have had to work in broken-down towers, under leaking roofs, and with flooded toilets. Carl Hernandez, deputy chairman of the NUGFW and also a lifeguard, said he was fed-up of hearing of missing equipment or lack of thereof.

“There are holes in the roofs, the windows are old and they fall off,” he detailed. “The railings on the ramps are falling off, seats where we have to sit are broken.

The towers are open to the public so sometimes they are dirty.” Paul also said the Tyrico Bay tower was in a dilapidated state.

Gideon Valdez, Lifeguard II, said since lifeguards had been transferred from the Tourism Ministry to the National Security Ministry, they seemed to have been lost among the prisons and police services.

“Right now it seems that we do not exist, we are just lost,” he said.

Internal problems with the Lifeguard Association have also resulted in allegations that officials there are not working as well as they should to lobby for members.

We also note that last week’s incident at Maceuripe comes at a time of considerable distress for that once pleasant and well-maintained facility.

According to one letter-writer, decay, dilapidation and general decline have set in there, an indictment on the Chaguaramas Development Authority. The State must rectify these matters.

Meanwhile, swimmers must take charge and be responsible.