Hyderabad: With no government department accountable for ensuring that standards are maintained in private swimming pools, swimmers are left at the mercy of the pool managements.
Apart from being exempt from any kind of checks, the managements have a free hand in construction of pools and providing amenities as there are no set guidelines to build a pool except the NBC (National Building Code) rules.
In GHMC, the Town Planning department is the sanctioning authority, but it has lost track of the exact number of pools in the city.
“We get requests for sanctioning permissions for pools even from apartments these days and we sanction based on NBC rules. With so many pools in the city and no authority, we can’t keep track of how many are actually operational. A lot might have been shut down due to water problems,” said a senior official from the Town Planning department.
Usually, only those pools associated with clubs, resorts or star hotels follow international guidelines, said officials. Mr S.R. Prem Raj, director of Sports, said, “If international guidelines are followed, a 50-feet long pool should have not less than eight to 10 lifeguards. But, we don’t have the power to monitor if they actually have any. There are several rules pertaining to the permitted depth of pools for various age-groups, frequency of changing water and other things.” Reportedly, the private pools need to pay trade license tax to GHMC every year. However, as per data from GHMC, only 10 private swimming pools paid trade license tax last year. Most of these were linked to clubs or resorts. Officials estimate that not less than 40 private pools, not attached to any other recreational facility, operated in the city last year.
