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Goa tourism department announces
new beach plan
05 March 2008. MYSTERY
SHROUDS the death of 16-year-old Scarlette Keeling Eden, from England whose
semi-nude body was found on the Goa shore on February 18 in the once hippie
heaven of Anjuna in North Goa. Initial reports pointed to a death by drowning
but with every passing day there is more to her death that meets the eye,
than just death by drowning. With at least one or two drowning deaths per
week and an average of 50 to 70 deaths every year Goa’s beaches are increasingly
gaining notoriety.
The increasing number of
deaths on Goa beaches, which includes locals, has been a cause of concern
both within the tourism department and locals withering in anger.
After a few plans in beach
safety had fallen flat in recent times, comes another plan in beach safety.
The latest safety plan is planned by the Goa’s tourism department headed
by its director Elvis Gomes.
“Goa’s tourism authority
has promised to spend £20m to put trained lifeguards and life-saving
equipment in place on Goan beaches, following the latest in a string of
fatal accidents involving foreign visitors to India’s smallest state,”
says a report in The Telegraph.
“Every year we hear of a
number of cases of drowning and even if swimmers in trouble are rescued,
there is no immediate medical attention that can be given to them,” Gomes,
has been quoted by the paper as saying.
“Goa currently has no effective
safety measures on its beaches,” he says. The plan of action is to appoint
a private contractor to train lifeguards.
“Mr Gomes wants to appoint
a private contractor to train lifeguards, supply first aid and rescue equipment,
and provide ambulance service at Goa’s most popular beaches, starting with
Baga, Sinquerim and Benaulim. It will initially cost £20m and the
tourism department plans to extend the scheme to all Goa’s beaches,” the
report adds.
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At the start of the season,
the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) posted 52 trained lifeguards
replacing the existing 80-odd lifeguards, on various locations along the
105 km coastline, to prevent incidents of drowning. The Men in Orange are
currently manning 27 beaches, each lifeguard monitoring a kilometre stretch
of the beach belt from 9 am to 6 pm. Deployed in pairs, they are provided
with 15 items of hi-tech life saving equipment required for rescue and
post-rescue treatment of victims.
The GTDC spent Rs 20 lakhs
(US $50000) on the training of the lifeguards and purchase of equipments
like high visibility binoculars, pocket masks, oxygen resuscitators, portable
oxygen cylinders, fluorescent jackets, hand microphones, water goggles
and first-aid kit boxes, mobile lifeguard observation chairs and beach
observation posts.. |
But sadly the appointment and
modernisation has failed to stem the death toll. And GTDC failure to appoint
an additional 48 lifeguards to the coastline has forced public-minded citizens
like Audhumber Shinde to approach the Mumbai bench of the High Court in
Goa with suggestions that the government should engage motorboats in rescue
operations and put up beach nets to make the beaches safe.
The petitioner had approached
the court in regard to the drowning deaths and insufficient number of lifeguards
on the beaches as the government went back on their proposal to employ
120 lifeguards and 20 supervisors instead employing only 51 lifeguards
to man 32 beaches.
Goa gets some 2.5 to 3 million
tourists every year. So, the next time, when you are in Goa do not be enticed
by the fatal combination of cheap liquor and the ocean, but tread a cautious
path. If you are not careful and fortune fails to be by your side, than
you may as well join the surging drowning deaths’ list
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