The arrival of days of high heat and the approaching start of the summer season make it necessary to trust that lifeguards will exercise greater control and that bathers who go to the beaches of the river and the Atlantic coast will be correspondingly more careful. And of course similar precautions must be taken into account for the thousands of people who go to swimming pools in search of relaxation and freshness.
As at the beginning of every summer, it is appropriate to renew the calls for caution addressed to the thousands of tourists who will fill the beaches of the Atlantic coast and also those closest to the Río de la Plata. And also call on the various relevant authorities to intensify the prevention campaigns necessary to warn visitors to the various thermal baths, many of whom are unaware of the dangers posed by sea and river waters – but others seem to underestimate them.
The admonition also extends to those who venture into the many bodies of water, lagoons, lakes and, in the case of our region, the numerous caves, which also act as dangerous places of supposed recreation, which there are no human and material resources to guard.
It is worth remembering – in the hope that the same thing does not happen again now – that at the very beginning of previous summer seasons there were very serious events in which people drowned or were heroically rescued by bathers after crossing the surf on the beaches of the Atlantic.
In the case of Punta Lara, an average of three rescues per day has been recorded recently, with Ensenada’s official lifeguards stressing that the greatest risk lies not so much in the waters of the river, but in the steepness of a coastline carved out in several sections by the rocky bottom, the depressions and the remains of old breakwaters.
It is well known on the beaches that rescue operations are usually evidence of the lack of caution with which many people proceed. In the case of Punta Lara, most visitors are unaware of the dangers associated with our shores and are therefore more exposed to accidents. But in the case of the river, even those knowledgeable about the subject, including locals – fishermen, bathers, boating enthusiasts – tend to fall victim either to their own confidence, recklessness or some peculiar features of the riverside area.
What is needed is not so much: to properly inform the population, to enforce the rules and to always remember, especially those who come to the sea or the river for the first time, that the water is not an excuse for the reckless. In any case, it should always be clear that the risks on beaches are much lower than the recklessness of some tourists.
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