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SPN AUG 2012 WorldNews
www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk worldnews £2M A YEAR UPKEEP TO RUN MARATHON SIZED POOL
Running costs have been released for what many claim to be the world’s largest swimming pool.
The upkeep of the lagoon pool at the San Alfonso del Mar resort in Chile, where a quick dip could well turn into a marathon, costs £2m a year. The enormous man-made lagoon is set halfway up the country’s Pacific coast, in the city of Algarrobo, and is filled with 66 million gallons of seawater. It also holds the Guinness Book Of Records record for the world’s deepest – 115ft to the bottom.
The pool is said to have set developers back as much as £1bn. It uses a computer-controlled suction and filtration system to suck water in from the ocean at one end and pump it out at the other, while the sun warms it to 26°C – nine degrees higher than the sea.
The pool’s incredible dimensions leave the next biggest floundering in its wake, with the Orthlieb pool in Morocco measuring a mere 1,575ft long.
CANADA GOES FOR ‘LAYERED’ APPROACH TO POOL SAFETY
The ‘layered’ approach to pool safety is sweeping across Canada as a way of saving lives.
Last year a record number of children drowned in swimming pools. But even with repeated warnings to parents to install pool fences, many people are saying that more needs to be done to prevent drownings. The layered approach works on one preventative system not being enough – a whole tranche is necessary to guarantee total safety.
Having a pool fence is better than not having one. However, the advice going out to pool owners is one of multi levels of security and safety. Said Canadian pool safety expert Don Givens: “Don’t only have a gate, but also have automatic sliding glass doors, or have better latches. Fitting a pool fence gate with an alarm is helpful because it will alert parents if the gate has been opened, or hasn’t closed completely. Also, gate latches should be over five feet high so they can’t be opened. Even with more prevention methods in place, it’s still up to parents to be more aware. According to Givens, parents are most distracted from watching their children during a phone call.
POOL OWNERS GIVEN REPRIEVE OVER DISABLED ACCESS LAW CHANGES
President Obama’s administration in the United States looks to be sidestepping an election-year confrontation with the hotel industry and other pool owners to give them more time to comply with access rules for the disabled.
The rules have been in the works since the early 1990s, but there was uproar among hotels, waterparks, health clubs and the like earlier this year when it said it will require many such facilities to install fixed, permanent lifts to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act. After first saying it might grant a reprieve until September, the US Government has now said owners won’t have to comply with the new requirements until early next year, a move that gets the controversy safely past the election. It is known that pool lift and access manufacturers started gearing themselves up for a big increase in demand last year. Manufacturing supplies have now started to affect delivery of US made units into the UK. At issue is whether hotels and other facilities will have to install fixed, permanent lifts to assist disabled people getting in and out of their pools, a move that requires hiring a contractor and tearing up
the pool deck at a cost of as much as US$6,000.
Many pool owners were hoping to comply with the rules by purchasing less costly portable lifts that could be wheeled out to the poolside as needed. Hotel owners who already have lifts say few of their customers ever ask for them.
Advocates for the disabled are frustrated by the delay, saying it means another swimming season without lifts at most pools. Disabled people complain that in cities where lifts are already required, portable lifts are often stowed away and that not all employees know how to operate them. And they say that the hotel and motel industry has a long record of trying to evade access rules for the disabled, sometimes waiting to be sued before complying. There’s a longstanding exemption in the law which says existing facilities can avoid an ADA requirement if they determine compliance is not “readily achievable”. That basically means you’re eligible for the exemption if you determine it’s too difficult or expensive. Figuring out whether one qualifies for the exemption can be difficult.
ZODIAC ASKS ITS CUSTOMERS TO LOOK INTO THE FUTURE
One of the world’s best known names in pool products is asking its customers worldwide what products they think they may need in the future. Zodiac Pool Systems is asking 13,000 of its customers to assess its existing brands and products and to take a look at what else the dealers might need as products of the future. Following its extensive consumer research conducted throughout 2010 and 2011, Zodiac has expanded its research to gather quantitative information from its key audience. The series of perception surveys started to be carried out in May and several questions are open- ended, allowing the dealers and service technicians to input whatever comments they would like to make to improve products or services. Questions in the surveys cover multiple topics, including product innovation, performance, range of offerings and availability, value for price warranty coverage and technical support.
A spokesman for the company said: “These pool professionals live the market every day and we are sure there are things they can see being so close to the end user. We want to make the most of that insight to see if there are new in- demand products out there.”
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