Accra, Aug. 15, GNA - The Ghana Tourist Board has put in place measures to enforce regulations to ensure the safety of people who patronize swimming pools at hotels and public places and to improve standards in the hospitality industry.

The Board has therefore trained 28 people from various hotels in the country at the Aquatic Life Saving Training Programme held in collaboration with the Regional Maritime University.

Mr. Martin Mireku, Executive Director of the Ghana Tourist Board, announced this at the end of the two-week training programme. He said the regulations by the Board included the employment of trained and skilled life guards at hotels, provision of life jackets, swimming pool equipment and materials for maintenance and cleaning, markings showing the depth at each level of the pool and the dos and don'ts sign at every pool side.

"Most swimming pools do not have life guards and those who have are untrained and therefore cannot save lives...most of the lifeguards at swimming polls in hotels do not even know how to swim," he said. He said the board had decided to mount an educational campaign on the issue and all facility owners were expected to comply or have their pools closed down.

Mr Mireku said the board would also organize training programmes for lifeguards at the beaches and waterfalls to stem the occurrence of drowning during mass events at water bodies and to encourage more Ghanaians to go for leisure at such tourist sites.

He urged the trainees to practice what they had learnt and called on pool owners who do not have qualified attendants to take advantage of subsequent training programmes to either train a life guard or sharpen their skills.

In a speech read on her behalf, Mrs Oboshie Sai-Cofie, Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, urged the board to identify and mark areas along the coastline to indicate places which were dangerous for swimming from Aflao to Jewi-Wharf to discourage people from swimming in those areas.

She also urged the board to mark safe sailing lines in rivers, lakes and lagoons as well as the Volta Lake.

"We believe that should our tourist attraction sites, especially water bodies become unsafe due to drowning and other health hazards, our (country) will no longer be the preferred destination but the destination to be avoided."

Mrs. Sai-Cofie said swimming pools played an important role in hotel operations and it was important that safety measures were adopted in managing such facilities.

She appealed to all district assemblies with waterfalls and other water bodies used for recreational activities to send their representatives for subsequent training programmes.