The new Down Leisure Centre swimming pool will have a state-of-the-art specialist drowning detection system installed that has been used in 240 pools worldwide.
At a meeting of the Active and Healthy Communities committee meeting of Newry Mourne and Down District Council, Councillors were briefed on the proposal by Roland Moore, Assistant Director of Leisure and Sport. He explained: “As part of the new Down Leisure centre this detection system will be installed and it would be the only pool with this system, however, and if it was successful, the Council may consider rolling it out to its other pools in Newry and Kilkeel.” It was agreed too that Councillors would further consider this at a presentation in the future.
Currently this new detection system is part of the specification for the budget for the new Down Leisure Centre, but if the other pools were agreed to adopt this also, they would need to find the financial resources within the Council budget.
This system is called Poseidon and is a computer surveillance system that recognises texture, volume, and movement within a pool. It is made up of networked overhead and underwater cameras that continually survey the pool and a specialised software system that analyses in real time, the trajectories of swimmers, and the system, can alert lifeguards in the first seconds of a potential accident to the exact location of the swimmer in danger.
From June 2011 to March 2015, the number of Poseidon registered rescues across the Netherlands, France, UK, US, Australia and Japan has been twelve, which may have resulted in possible fatalities.
