On this Wednesday afternoon in July, in the courtyard of the Jean-Jaurès school in Dugny (Seine-Saint-Denis), facing the tarmac basketball court, a dozen pairs of shoes were abandoned in bulk at the foot of a staircase leading to an imposing rectangular block. At the top of the latter, after passing the footbath, we find ourselves facing a pool of 10 m by 5 m, with a depth of 160 cm.
“Come on, we’re trying to get our elbows and shoulders in the water!” encourages Johnny, one of the lifeguards who supervise these “aquatic ease courses” given in this ephemeral open-air swimming pool. Nine little Dugnysiens, aged 6 to 9 years old, bathing caps on their heads and goggles screwed on their eyes, are already in the water.
In total, between May 22 and July 30, around 300 children from Dugny, via their schools, leisure centres, sports clubs or free registrations, will have taken advantage of this free ephemeral swimming pool to tame the water. A necessary device for this city of 10,000 inhabitants located in Seine-Saint-Denis which does not have its own swimming pool. During the school period, students take advantage of a few slots in the basins of the neighboring towns of Saint-Denis and Garges-lès-Gonesse, but not enough to benefit everyone. “This is a real public health and safety issue. When entering 6th grade, three quarters of Dugnys students cannot swim, says Quentin Gesell, the town’s mayor. This is more than at the departmental level, where we reach 60%. »
With 36 pools for 1.6 million inhabitants, Seine-Saint-Denis is the territory least well endowed with swimming pools on a national scale. According to Public Health France, at the national level, accidental drowning is also the leading cause of death by accident in everyday life among people under 25 years old. A double observation that prompted Paris 2024 and its partners, the National Sports Agency, the French Swimming Federation, EDF, the departmental committee of Seine-Saint-Denis and the City of Marseille, to launch in 2021 the operation “Know how to swim”. This year, the scheme is targeting 20,000 beneficiaries throughout France via the financing of 38 projects, for a budget of 1,050,000 euros, by the Paris 2024 endowment fund.
“Hey, I’m cutting a cake. Hey there, I cut another one! Johnny continues while performing breaststroke gestures with his arms. Each apprentice swimmer then tries to redo the exercise at their own pace. Between two movements, Yasmine confides that she has already registered for the start of the school year at the Courneuve swimming club. The two lifeguards and the two trainees present try to offer personalized support to those who have more difficulty. “Even though they’re scared, they’re all participating, it’s positive,” Johnny comments. In some groups, we have terrified children who manage to convince their parents not to come back. It is up to us to establish contact with the families to avoid this. One of the solutions provided consists in offering swimming lessons to adults on weekends to combat the transmission of fear from parents to children.
