More must be done to ensure safety at beaches

The festive season is rarely without accidents. Some accidents have come to be associated with this period, prominent of all being road carnage.

As expected, travellers in a hurry to get to destinations for Christmas, transporters in a rush to cash in or drink driving have been reported as the causes of the numerous accidents.

Now with beach deaths, 2015 ends on a very sad note for families whose children were victim to beach deaths but is a lesson to the rest of the country.

With horror, the public was glued to the sad news of youngsters that met their death after a seemingly quiet festive season.

The young lads had gone to a couple of beaches within proximity to one another and the next day reportedly 13 bodies were seen floating on the shores of Lake Victoria.

There are many more expected with missing teens reported to the police authorities. These beaches where incidents have been reported are synonymous with teens and youths because of their perceived affordability and worse off a lack of scrutiny about what takes place there.

This leaves young people to ‘drink themselves silly’, smoke shisha and with reckless abandon engage in some forms of beach violence that are now on the rise.

This absurdity speaks volumes and must be investigated, stopped and in future beach activities regulated. This however, begs the question – Who should be responsible? We are all responsible as individuals, families, communities, the law enforcers, government and ultimately beach owners.

The 13 lives lost cast a shadow on how these sprawling beaches on the shores of Lake Victoria are run and should be managed. There should be preconditions for licensing and running these wonderful places before they become death traps.

Beach management should go beyond the notice “Cross this point at your own risk”, “no crossing beyond this point” to showing more responsibility by making the “No access beyond this point” policy part of their business.

This should be followed by erecting a barricade preventing bar revellers from accessing the deep water, have professional divers and minders 24/7.

Then there is the looming crisis of teen drinking. A lot has to be done to enforce the policy on alcoholic beverages to children below 18 years.

Of the 13 lives lost, it is reported that they could have drowned under the influence of alcohol and perhaps as amateurish swimmers they could not handle to tide.

Remember there were reports that the tide had increased due to weather changes to the extent that police marine staff had warned the swimmers to go slow. All these calls went unattended to by revellers and hosts, the beach owners.

In several news casts there have been reports of revellers having a lot of fun. In most news bulletins this fun is akin to violence. Young men are shown assaulting their female counterparts in the water.