Lifeguards left to deal with emergencies with virtually no lifesaving gear
TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: Eyebrows are being raised over beach safety along Goa’s coastline as tons of corroded equipment was scrapped by Drishti Special Response Services last week.
Rusted vehicles, surfboards, jet skis, life jackets, tubes, rescue boards ~ close to nine trucks were seen carrying worn-out equipment from Verna and it was off-loaded at a tourism department yard in Pernem.
It appears that there has been no replacement of the discarded equipment and lifeguards are walking a tight rope with bare minimum equipment as the tourism season peaks this summer.
Except for seven new jeeps which have been procured by Drishti on its own, the tourism ministry has not replaced the equipment in lieu of what has been scrapped after five long years of use.
While both the tourism ministry and Drishti are silent on the issue, a source close to Herald said, “Absence of adequate equipment on the beaches could pose a huge problem virtually compromising the safety of tourists.”
Even though beach safety tenders are yet to be released, sources say safety on the beaches was a continuous process and the government should not let the ongoing beach safety exercise collapse for want of life-saving equipment.
Herald has learnt that lifeguards are literally left to deal with any eventualities with little or no equipment.
Questions are also being raised whether lifeguards would be withdrawn from certain beaches in the wake of less or no equipment at all.
