Everyone is blaming everyone else for over 36 drowning incidents off the Clifton and Hawkesbay beaches during Eid holidays. The title of this column is the comment of a veiled woman who held the seas itself responsible for the deaths of two nephews. It is the highest death toll on beaches in the history of Karachi. The death toll is only of bodies recovered, the actual number who lost their lives at sea could be as high as 60 or even 80.
It is impossible to give at the moment the exact number of those who are missing, since a number of people at the beaches were from Khayber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Punjab and Gilgit, whose families perhaps are unaware their boys visiting Karachi may be missing. If bodies were far out at sea, they may have been eaten by the fishes. It is a terrible tragedy that need not have happened.
Part of the blame-game is to hold the victims themselves responsible for their watery end. Even though so many did not die in the sea in previous years, death by drowning is an annual feature during the monsoon season which coincides with the summer holidays. No amount of warning, red danger flags, lifeguards, police patrol or other safety measures hold back the young who find the sea irresistible. They run into the water fully dressed in shalwar kamez, or stripped to the waist, none in proper swimming trunks. Their wet clothes hamper their desperate attempt to get back to shore.
The reason why people are not afraid of the sea, and shun warnings, is that at sight the sea does not look menacing, because the waves are not the dramatic ten to fifteen feet high type dashing our coast. The waves are rollers, coming to shore fast and ebbing even faster. Their power is hidden below in the energy that pulls them back into the sea taking along whoever happens to be riding the roller.
To cordon off the beach or ban swimming is no solution. It does not work. We need to encourage people to swim in the sea, except during the monsoon season. Karachi has eight months of summer. Special trips to the sea should be organised by schools and sports organisers because swimming in the sea is an incredible experience. It may encourage the advent of sea sports, including scuba diving and sailing. Give the young a positive experience of the sea and we will see an end to our annual drowning tragedies; its a guarantee.
Ask anyone who has swum in the sea what a wonderful experience it is. It is nothing like swimming in a swimming pool. In the sea the waves bear you and you do not have to strain every muscle. There have been deaths during the calmer season too, but those are mostly caused by a panic attack when a swimmer looks back and cannot sea the shore; or if there is a deep trench underwater, which is quite common now because of sand excavation and high-rise building which, according to the Police, has created "ditches". The technicality needs to be explained by an expert, as I am unable to do so.
Organised swimming in the sea is a better option than blaming this one and that one for tragedies. If people are taught to swim in the sea they will be safe (baring monsoons, of course). It is imperative to be properly dressed for swimming, that is, boys to be in swimming trunks, swimming costumes for girls. There was a time when females could swim at Hawkesbay. Today it is impossible, but it can be made possible if certain parts of beaches are reserved for female swimmers atleast twice a week. For five months in the year such activity is possible.
It need not be for free. A nominal sun can be charged by instructors. Soon, I assure you, the trend will become popular. People, the young especially, spend a lot of money on gadgets, why can they not invest in a pair of swimming trunks and a ticket to swim in an area where safety measures are in place, such as a platform out in the sea for tired swimmers to rest, a motorboat ready to rescue, lifeguards, and what about hiring out inflated safety vests?
The authorities have cleche ideas about how to deal with danger at the beaches. They believe cordoning off or netting the beach during the monsoon will prevent swimmers, they think people will respect imposition of section I44 CrPc. These are not solutions.
Then there are the soft-hearted fools who also think in cleches. The pet one is, what are people to do as there is so little open space for recreation in the city?
We need to realise the beach is the greatest recreation place. We simply need sensible and workable solutions. We should stop playing the blame game and do something positive and humane. Any great body of living water attracts people. It is a primeval pull. Just looking at the sea, even if you do not dip in it, brings joy. Anthropologists say it is in our blood, an irresistible instinct to look and touch the water, as we have originated from the sea.
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