Inflatable and portable pools
Kids Can Drown Without a Sound!
‘Kids Can Drown Without a Sound’ is a statewide water safety and drowning prevention campaign with a focus on portable pools from Kids Health. The campaign aims to encourage families to take appropriate precautions when children are in or around water.
Each year an average of 13 drowning deaths and 84 non-fatal drowning incidents occurred in NSW children aged 0 to 17 years between 2002 to 20151. Children can drown without a sound in seconds in just 5 cm of water.
Portable and inflatable pools have the same drowning risk as permanent pools, in fact 1 in 5 swimming pools in which children drowned in a ten year period (2006 - 2015) was portable.
To help prevent child drowning:
- Have a compliant pool barrier that is used correctly and maintained regularly
- Supervision of children within arm’s reach by a responsible adult in and around water is essential
- Teach children water familiarisation and swimming skills
- Learn CPR. Remember that any attempt is better than none at all
Campaign resources including brochures and posters are available for download in English and 16 different languages under ‘Downloads’ and ‘Available Translations’ below.
Printed copies of these resources in English, Arabic, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese are available free of charge from the Resources to order page. These resources were developed after focus group testing by the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service.
A free online CPR Training is available to teach parents and carers the basic skills needed to perform CPR on a child.
The ‘Protect Your Pool, Protect Your Kids’ checklist in 16 different languages is available from the swimming pool fencing page under ‘Available Translations’.
By law, any pool including portable pools capable of being filled with 30 cm or more of water, requires a four-sided barrier. Fines apply for unfenced pools.
Portable and inflatable pools have the same drowning risk as permanent pools. Active supervision by an adult is the best protection against drowning, but a pool barrier is another layer of protection if supervision is interrupted.
Always remember:
- Portable pools should only be used if you will empty and store them away after each use
- Fines apply if you do not have a four sided fence around any pool that can be filled with more 30cm of water or more (the size of an average ruler)
- Faulty fences are a major cause of toddler drowning incidents in backyard pools and need to be regularly maintained to ensure compliance. Contact your local council or accredited pool inspector for more information on pool barriers
- Portable pools are not toys and children under the age of five should be supervised by a responsible adult at all times
- Portable pools more that can be filled with 30cm of water require an approved CPR chart in the pool area.
See the inflatable or portable swimming pools fact sheet for additional information.
See the pool fencing section of the website for more information on safe pool fencing.
The ‘Kids Can Drown Without a Sound’ campaign first launched in 2012-13. The final report of the 2012-13 campaign, including further information on the issues with inflatable and portable swimming pools is available under ‘Downloads’ below.
References
- Royal Life Saving (2017) A 13 year national study of non-fatal drowning in Australia: data challenges, hidden impacts and social costs
