Are outdoor swimming pools dangerous or safe?

When I am running in the Victory (Monument) Park, I often see how people are swimming in the pool. At first sight the water seems rather dirty. I often also see how people wash their dogs. In addition to it, there are some strange things awash… But, anyway, people swim.

A few days ago I went up to one of the people, a 45-50 years old man, swimming in the swimming pool in the park and who did not wish to publish his name, and I asked if it was dangerous swimming there. “If you do not swim well, it’s better not to jump into it: it has eight meters of depth”, he replied. I asked about the purity of the water. That day the water was really very dirty.”What purity? We have already been swimming here for 15 year and nobody has been ill” answered my interlocutor.

The chairman of the environment and community hygiene department of the Hygiene and Epidemic Inspection of the Ministry of Health Aida Petikyan says that it is actually quite dangerous to swim in foreseen swimming pools, because you can get many diseases that are “conditioned by the water factor”.

“First, they are some of a number of skins, metals diseases. And if the dirty water permeates into the stomach of the swimmer, intestinal infections are possible,” says Petikyan. You can be also infected with hepatitis A, Flex’s dysentery, enter -virus infections and etc.

But Ms. Petikyan stresses that it does not mean that the people, swimming in such swimming pools, will be gain these infections, but no one can guarantee that they will not be ill with some of them. If there is a bacteria in the water, the risk of infection is quite high. “We constantly do laboratory studies of water of such swimming pools, and if we discover that threat, we alarmed more powerfully,” she says.

According to Petikyan the outdoor pools of Yerevan are served for decorative purposes and create a microclimate. They, as a rule, are not intended for swimming, because the water of them, unlike swimming pools, does not change regularly, and there are no mechanisms for cleaning the water. All this increases the probability of the existence of microorganisms creating various diseases and the availability of their rapid propagation in such water. “There are mechanisms for cleaning in the swimming pools, and there is no even a shower near outdoor pools, where a person can have a shower after swimming and wash dirty water and viruses from his body,” says Petikyan.

There is also a danger in outdoor pools. People have a habit of throwing dirty things and broken bottles in the water.”In other words, there is a chance to get a mechanical injury,” says Petikyan. “Mechanical injuries, as we know, may increase the penetration of more infections into organism”.

You can often see not only swimming adults, but children, for whom dirty water may be much more dangerous, because their immune system, as a rule, is weaker. According to Petikyan, the number of children swimming in the swimming pools has decreased, and for example last year, compared to previous years, the number of swimmers in Yerevan outdoor pools was noticeably less. As Petikyan mentioned, the Epidemic Inspectorate always calls the police to tighten the control and not allow people to swim in areas not intended for swimming. By the other hand, Petikyan calls on parents to look after their children and warn about the dangers of swimming in dirty swimming pools.

The serious problem is that not all the parents consider dangerous for their children to swim in such swimming pools. For example, Ruben takes his two sons (10 and 12 year- old) himself to swim in the Victory Park swimming pool. According to his words he is not worried that the swimming pool may be dirty and cause various diseases. In Ruben’s opinion, there are much more dangerous things in life, and diseases can be purchased everywhere, not only in swimming pools. On the other hand, Ruben is sure that even if the swimming pool is dirty, it may strengthen children’s immune system and instead of making them ill, make them more healthy. Ruben also mentioned that till now neither he nor his sons has got any virus from the pool, “Either there is no danger in that water or our immune system is strong”, he said, continuing to run around the pool.

I tried to find a man around the pool, who really got some infection from there, but all the swimmers insisted that they were healthy. Then I realized that no one, acquired an infection, would not come to this pool for the second time…

To my question why Ruben does not take her children to swimming pool, he answered that swimming pools are quite expensive, “Besides, who said that they are more pure, as if everyone swims there?”

Of course, the children’s and adults’ swimming desire is understandable and logical in the heat of summer, but outdoor pools are not a good option for swimming, because there is an opportunity to gain infections. What to do? Petikyan sees the solution of this problem in the construction of outdoor swimming pools. Such pools would be available for children and youth and at the same time they would be relatively cleaner and safer.

But who will build outdoor swimming pools? Petikyan thinks that “any entity or economic communities “must be engaged with this issue”. However, no one is engaged with this issue so far.