wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  Straits Times 22 Jul 07
Truly all at sea

FOR all the water that surrounds the island, Singaporeans are landlubbers in reflex and habit.

This singular fact should be borne in mind as people living in the heartland are being encouraged to take to boating and other water sports that are now permitted in reservoirs.

The drowning of a man who had gone kayaking with his wife in Lower Seletar Reservoir in May, just weeks after the water sports centre there was opened, has been a dampener. It shouldn't be.

But the overseers of reservoir water activity, the People's Association and the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, do not want to take chances. Among new safety measures being considered are devices boaters may be issued with to send out distress signals if they get into difficulties. It is taken that rescue teams will have to be trained in tandem with this added precaution, if it is implemented.

The authorities are to be commended for being solicitous. Public safety is not to be trifled with.

But does this look a bit like an over-reaction?

It is almost as extreme as when National Parks Board staff went traipsing around the island to give trees the once-over after two persons died in tree-fall accidents.

In recreational boating, clients are required to wear life vests. That means being securely fastened.

But landlubber instincts are strong. Boaters are just as likely to undo the straps of the vest once they are on the water, because it is too tight. Some will take the vest off as it gets uncomfortably hot with the sun beating down and the rowing working up a copious sweat.

You don't want to mollycoddle these people for their asinine ways.

People from cultures with a water tradition reflexively do what is required of them, without quibble even if a life vest smells.

Here, it is not just safety wardens having to make sure that boaters put on the vests correctly. It is as much hoping that the boater's sense of self-preservation will guide his actions on the water.
links
Related articles on recreation in our wild places
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com