Westmeath Water safety Area Committee

Westmeath Water safety Area Committee is affiliated to Irish Water Safety, the statutory body established to promote water safety in Ireland
At a county level, Westmeath Water Safety educates people in water safety best practices. We develop public awareness campaigns to promote necessary attitudes, rescue skills and behaviour to prevent drowning and water related accidents.
Westmeath Water safety Area Committee can provide water safety training ranging from the Primary Aquatic Water Safety programme (PAWS) to National Pool Lifeguard award and IWS Instructor / Examiner at Athlone Regional Sports Centre or Mullingar Swimming Pool.

Westmeath’s Water Safety Weeks

Westmeath Water safety Area Committee, operate Water Safety Weeks at Easter, in July and in August of each year in the Athlone Regional Sports Centre. Summer swim camps are also held at the Mullingar Swimming Pool.

For details of upcoming water safety courses over the summer months contact
-Athlone Regional Sports Centre 0906470975
-Mullingar Swimming Pool on 0449340262.

Lifesaving Course shows demand for Water Safety in Westmeath.

Lifesaving courses were held over the Easter mid-term break in Athlone and Mullingar, teaching children as young as nine, personal water safety, simple ways to assist someone in difficulty and the basics of first aid.

In January, Westmeath Water Safety Area committee held an instructors course to train up new instructors and provide a refresher course for existing instructors with six committee members from Athlone and Mullingar attending.

This year also marks the first time a water safety course has taken place in the pool in Mullingar for nearly a decade. There was a very strong demand for these water safety courses with 80 people looking for the 40 places on offer.

Westmeath Water Safety Development Officer Enda Hanniffy has increased the number of ringbuoys in the county and provided new training equipment for each pool.

Both pools now have a family of manikins for CPR purposes which include an adult, child and infant sized manikin which is important to emphasise the different lifesaving techniques required for different age groups of people.

The Water Safety Week’s activities include an hour each morning in the water, learning rescue leg kick strokes for towing a victim, throwing a ringbuoy and practicing various simple rescues, followed by an hour of theory which focuses on practicing CPR and resuscitation on manikins.

Resuscitation and CPR has many uses outside of swimming such as helping someone who has had a heart attack, been involved in a car accident or choking.

For details of upcoming water safety courses over the summer months contact Athlone Regional Sports Centre 0906470975 or Mullingar Swimming Pool on 0449340262.