Fewer than one in 10 Canberra children meet water safety benchmarks

The latest figures from Royal Life Saving ACT revealed just 7 per cent of students who participated in the organisation's swimming courses were able to reach the standard set out by the Australian Water Safety Council, dropping from 15 per cent the previous year.

Of the 8614 primary school students who participated in learn to swim and swim survival courses during the 2016-17 financial year, only 588 met the benchmark.

The national benchmark of level four or above for Swim and Survive includes being able to swim 50 metres freestyle and backstroke, being able to tread water in clothes for two minutes and safely jumping into and exiting deep water.

It comes as a world-first national building census conducted by Canberra company PSMA Australia revealed there were 11,742 swimming pools in the capital, with pools in 7 per cent of ACT backyards.

Currently, there is no central registry of swimming pools in Canberra, with each building file for Canberra properties needing to be looked at to determine if a home has a pool compliant with safety standards.

The government has previously estimated there to be about 8000 pools, although officials were unable to confirm an exact figure.

Royal Life Saving ACT chief executive Cherry Bailey said more should be done to make children safer in the water this summer.

"We would like to see a shared responsibility for water safety education between schools and families," Ms Bailey said.

"School programs alone don't provide enough education for students, and families should be trying where possible to enrol students into water safety programs."

Other jurisdictions across Australia have also reported declining rates of children being able to meet the national benchmark, according to Australian Water Safety Council chair Justin Scar.

However, he said the benchmarks set out by the council were what students should be able to do by the end of primary school.

"A decision was made to target younger children with these programs, and naturally, they're less likely to be able to swim and achieve the benchmark standard for 10- and 12-year-olds," he said.

"Research has also shown that children from migrant backgrounds, Indigenous children and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are the least likely to achieve the benchmark."

One of Australia’s most successful swimmers, Petria Thomas, said swimming was “a critical life skill” everyone should invest in.

The three-time Olympic gold medallist and long-time Canberra resident said while the capital was not a coastal area, there were still plenty of places to go swimming and the proportion of children achieving the national standard “did seem quite low”.

“[Swimming] is critically important I think, particularly if families are going to be around water, whether it be pools, rivers, beaches, lakes,” Ms Thomas said.

“I think it’s one of those life skills that’s definitely worth investing in.

“If you’re not safe in the water and you go in the water there can be dire consequences, which no one wants to see.”

Ms Thomas said swimming was a great Australian pastime that everyone should be able to enjoy safely.

She said school water safety programs were a great way for children to get a taste of swimming, but encouraged parents to also look to give their kids “a bit more than that”.

“It’s not about whether they can do nice butterfly or breaststroke, it’s about whether they’re safe,” Ms Thomas said.

“And it’s not just children, all people need to be safe around water.”

According to the Royal Life Saving report, more than 3000 year 2 students took part in the subsidised Aquasafe program, which offers five classroom-based lessons and 10 lessons in the pool.

A further 5200 students participated in the Swim and Survive program, which was subsidised by the ACT government until 2014.

A further 370 children took part in the Swim 4 Life course, which include practical sessions in Canberra pools and outdoor areas such as Pine Island or Lake Ginninderra.

While the number of students reaching the national benchmark has dropped, the number of primary school students taking part in swim safety programs has increased, with 2760 students participating in Aquasafe the year before.

The Aquasafe program is the only program partially funded by the ACT government, and Ms Bailey said more programs should be subsidised in order to boost swim rates.

"We believe a combination of disadvantage and pressure on day-to-day lives of children and families, and swimming lessons can be expensive," Ms Bailey said.

"There's an increasing trends to having these lessons at a younger age, but often children don't continue into primary school, when they're likely to be swimming greater distances."

It comes as a recent report found the ACT was the only jurisdiction in Australia to record a higher than average number of drowning deaths last financial year, despite the national figure hitting a record low.

During 2017-18, three people drowned in Canberra, all of them male.

Despite that figure being less than the previous financial years figure of four drowning deaths, the number was higher than the 10-year average of two.

In the past 25 years, eight toddlers have fatally drowned in the ACT.