Royal Life Saving warns more pools in remote NT communities could close

Royal Life Saving says many remote NT community pools are at risk of closure In short: Lifesavers are sounding the alarm over the state of swimming pools across the Northern Territory. They are calling for the assets to be declared essential community infrastructure and say urgent, long-term coordinated funding is needed to prevent further closures. What's next? Royal Lifesaving NT wants local, territory and federal governments to work together to find a solution. As October's temperatures already hover around the mid-30s and with the nearest beach thousands of kilometres away, residents in remote communities like Mutitjulu flock to the local pool. Home to the Anangu people, the remote Northern Territory community at the base of Uluru has not always had that luxury. Speaking through a translator, Anangu elder and traditional owner Rita Jingo told the ABC her parents were instrumental in pushing for a swimming pool to be built back in 2013, as there were few alternatives back then. "Sometimes [people would] go for a walk to Uluru and do a bit of swimming at the rock where the water is," she said. "Or sometimes they go to Yulara but the people who work there didn't want those kids to have a bit of a swim there. "It's really important to make something for our kids to have a place where they can have a swim." The community built the pool from money paid to traditional owners from Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and now funds operational costs in collaboration with the Central Land Council. "My grandkids come and enjoy … and it makes me really happy to see those kids enjoying the swimming pool,"Ms Jingo said. A "yes school, yes pool" policy has also been introduced to encourage children to attend class. Mutitjulu lifesaver Leigh Forrester explained that children who go to school get a wrist band, which allows them to use the pool. Leigh and his twin brother Craig started working as lifesavers after they returned to Mutitjulu from boarding school. "I did some training at the beach at Adelaide when I was in boarding school," Craig said. "I had some skills from there and I bring it here and I thought I'd work here." A new report from Royal Lifesaving Australia shows Mutitjulu has one of 19 remote pools across the Northern Territory. It found nine had infrastructure more than 30 years old and five had closed, with fragmented and limited funding, aging assets and workforce shortages contributing factors. Royal Lifesaving NT executive director Floss Roberts said Mutitjulu stood as a successful model for functioning remote pools and evidence that "pools need to be recognised as essential infrastructure". "It's used for everything from learning to swim to just going to the pool for a barbecue," she said. "There's training of local people … it's run pretty cost-efficient from what I understand and the community value the pool as well." Ms Roberts said she was concerned about the closures and aging infrastructure. "There is a need at some of the pools for critical infrastructure investment and obviously the asset management plans across the pools could do with some love," she said. "We need those pools open and we need a really good and supported workforce." The report warns that "without urgent, coordinated investment in workforce, infrastructure and operational models, more pools will close". "We had a 2010 report with 19 recommendations for improvements for the pools and the community — most of those weren't actioned and in this report we already have five of those pools closed," Ms Roberts said. "We have the highest drowning rate per capita in Australia, so three times more likely to drown in the Northern Territory than other states and territories. "So having access to a functioning swimming pool means that you can learn to swim. "This can be fixed, it could be fixed quite easily if the right people come together … it's a call for help and it's a call for action and it's a call for leadership across a lot of levels."