The Bavarian Water Rescue demands the maintenance of swimming pools in Bavaria so that children can learn to swim there. “Swimming courses can only take place if there is sufficient pool capacity. The corona pandemic has left a large gap in children’s swimming ability,” said Thomas Huber, the state chairman of the water rescue service, on Thursday, according to the announcement. If there are not enough pools, you cannot cope with the great demand for swimming courses.
As a result of the restrictions in the corona pandemic, swimming pools were closed for a long time and swimming courses for children could not be offered. Many boys and girls of kindergarten or elementary school age are therefore not yet able to swim.
It is often a major challenge, especially for smaller municipalities, to renovate their bathrooms, said Minister of Construction Kerstin Schreyer (CSU). The state government knows about the difficult situation of many municipalities that operate a swimming pool. A special program was therefore made available in 2019 for the renovation of communal pools. The program will run until 2024, and there are still sufficient funds in the current year.
The Greens in the state parliament called for a significant increase in funding. The spokesman for the parliamentary group for municipal issues, Johannes Becher, said that the equivalent of 20 million euros per year was an “downright ridiculous amount” in view of the large number of swimming pools and the high level of investment required. The SPD parliamentary group also spoke out in favor of 30 million euros more funding and a higher funding quota, which should be up to 80 percent in hardship cases. Many financially weak municipalities would not get very far with a funding share of 25 to 55 percent and would not apply despite the renovation backlog, said the local political spokesman Klaus Adelt.