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Saturday, August 3, 2013

Pond Safety Article

Ponds have been given bad press in the media of late and rather unjustly I think. Water moving or still, swimming pool or pond has a fasination for children of all ages. Children weather attracted by the wildlife, the cool water or the pretty sounds or ripples, do love water and its not surprising that children do drown in ponds throughout the country.

If we look at the statistics we see many greater threats to our children than ponds. The Rospa (The royal society for the prevention of accidents) Statistics for 2002 on drowning show a total of 427 deaths by drowning only thirteen of these in garden ponds. That's 3% and I would think this statistic will have gone down since the start of the their pond safety campaign.

As a pond maintenance expert I regularly get called to take out garden ponds by parents worried about their Childs safety. But two factors make this overly cautious reaction hysteria. Most of the children drowning in garden ponds acctually drown in a neighbours or friends pond. So removing your own pond is a kneejerk reaction, when you know your own pond is there and take the appropriate precautions.

In 2004 statistics show 11 deaths by falls in the under 14s alone. If you look around any garden there are many accidents waiting to happen. Sharp or hard stones in the rockery, uncapped bamboo stakes, allergic reactions to insect stings, unlocked gates leading to the road, unsecure play equipment, improperly stored garden chemicals, Im sure you can think of more.

All these dangers including the pond can be made safe with parental supervision and a bit of common sense. A child can't drown if they are with the parent or a responsible adult. If you're going to let your child roam unsupervised in the garden then you should remove all dangerous elements and with that all interesting features. Garden ponds are a source of great inspiration, and a great educational tool, we all remember the lifecycle of the frog we were taught at school don't we.

What can we do to ensure safety in our pond even for the children of visitors?

Well we have a number of options here, when designing your pond you could raising the pond with brickwork., this prevents the child mearly running into it with out seeing it, and can keep out smaller children completely.For larger children a raised fence on top of the raised brickwork will keep them safe whilst they can still see the fish, this applies well to koi ponds or ornamental ponds in terraced gardens but in wildlive ponds and ponds in more natural surroundings brickwork would not look so good.In these circumstances a metal or plastic grid is better, you can have a custom built metal grid made my a blacksmith which compliments the pond perfectly or you can get a plastic grid which sites below the surface and are almost completely unseen. There are a few companys that make and install these and being far from cheap the're cheaper and easier to manage than a metal grid. And on the subject of price what price would you put on a Child's safety.

The contact numbers of a few of the companies who make pond safety grids are below

SafaDeck (01623) 428873.
DiamonDeck 0800 169 6919
Pondguard (01942) 888601

Any questions on this article or any other aspect of pond life, fish, aquariums or reptiles/amphibians. Contact Pro-fish-ional aquatic services on 07930 247329, or pondguy@tiscali.co.uk or browse our website http://www.freewebs.com/pro-fish-ional

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