Swimming lessons as Bihar Disaster Management Strategy

Patna: A practical way to deal with floods is to teach everyone to swim. That’s what Bihar’s disaster management team is going to do from next month.

The Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA) has decided to provide swimming lessons to children and teenagers in flood-prone areas. The swimming lessons will start from the first week of April for those between 6-18 years.

“Taking a cue from the Swimsafe programme in Bangladesh, the state government has decided to provide swimming lessons to children,” BSDMA vice-chairman Vyasji said on Wednesday. “Bihar has rich water bodies with a large number of rivers passing through the area, but it has been observed that even people living on the banks of rivers don’t know swimming and due to which they meet with fatal accidents. The disaster management authority will provide to swimming training to youths.”

He said that the BSDMA will soon urge the district magistrates in the flood-prone areas to carry out registration of children who are interested in swimming lessons.

“Kids, especially those living in flood-prone districts, will be given swimming lessons by trained instructors,” Vyasji said.

The disaster management department will put up a stall at the three-day Bihar Divas function at Gandhi Maidan to create awareness about how to cope with natural disasters.

The BSDMA has roped in 16 partners along with  the state disaster response force to create awareness about what to do when calamity strikes.

Snake bites, though not considered as ‘disaster’ are also one of the hazards, especially during floods, as the reptiles are dislodged from their holes and seek higher ground.

“There are many accidents which don’t come under the purview of disaster,” Vyasji explained. “One such is snakebite. In India only 15 per cent of the snakes are venomous but every year around 90,000 people die due to snakebites. In Australia, 85 per cent of the snakes are venomous but the number of deaths is very low. Our focus is to create awareness about how to prevent snakebites.”