«Mom look, I’m disappearing!» Calls out Eliott, four and a half years old, before putting his head under water. «You’re a little fish!» Answers his mother, Agapé Ambs, all smiles, who came to see her son’s fifth session in the «Carava’nage» of the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg.
«It’s really great, it’s reassuring, because drowning is anxiety,» explains this marketing consultant, who lives near Hangenbieten, about fifteen kilometers southwest of the capital. Alsatian.
These ten sessions of 30 to 40 minutes free, while Eliott is at the municipal leisure center, are perfect before leaving on vacation. «Next to our cottage, there will be a swimming pool and there I think the child becomes aware of what he is capable of doing and of his limits. And so are we», considers the mother of the little boy.
Cross the pool with a foam tube under your arms, float on your back, jump into the water. The two lifeguards multiply the exercises for the seven children in the course, aged 4 to 6 years old.
«The objective is that if they fall in the water, they manage to catch up with the edge either on their stomach or on their back», explains lifeguard Julie Stoffel.
– Know how to save yourself –
It is not a question of knowing how to swim the breaststroke or the crawl, but of «removing fears and anxieties», of «learning to lie down on the water to float, to put your head under water, to propel yourself with your legs”, she explains. «Just resourcefulness to manage to walk a few meters independently to save yourself».
More than 250 children in the Strasbourg metropolis should enjoy the 28-degree water in this mobile swimming pool 1.05 m deep, 6 meters long, 2.5 meters wide throughout the summer, installed in two containers, one for the pond and the other for the water treatment facilities.
«Drowning is a major cause of death among children, we had to find a solution to teach children to save themselves from an early age», targeting in particular «children who do not go naturally to municipal swimming pools “, explains Alexis Baye, deputy head of the swimming pool, ice rink and water bodies service for the Alsatian metropolis.
Experimented this summer, this traveling pool, which requires about four hours and six people to install and put into service, with the water transported in bags from one place to another, was designed by the technical services of the Strasbourg Eurometropolis.
– Swimming pool in a container –
«We reduced a classic swimming pool in a container» with the same sanitary and access requirements, explains Gilbert Gunenbein, technical manager of swimming pools. Behind him, a new group of seven children pass through the footbath and the outdoor shower before entering the pool.
This mobile pool «meets 100% the standards of a public pool», underlines Alexis Baye, hoping that this mobile pool will serve as a «loss leader» to continue learning swimming in the pool the rest of the year. .
«This system is unique in France», welcomes Vincent Debes, vice-president of the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg, in charge of sports.
With two years of Covid and many months without a school trip or with swimming pools closed for long months, «these age groups are a little penalized for knowing how to swim», notes the elected official, also mayor of Hoenheim, north of Strasbourg. .
Representing an investment of 125,000 euros and operating costs of 25,000 euros, the «Carava’nage» will continue its journey until the end of August in three other different locations in Strasbourg and the surrounding area. Vincent Debes is already dreaming of a second traveling swimming pool «perhaps in two years».