Annex 1

(Translation)

2 July 2021

Mr LO Kin-hei Chairman, Southern District Council 3 Aberdeen Praya Road, Southern District, Hong Kong

Dear Chairman,

Proposed Agenda Item for the Southern District Council Meeting on 8 July 2021: Follow up the Lifeguard Service for Beaches in the Southern District

The 12 public beaches on Hong Kong Island are all located in the Southern District. Given that the Government has gradually reopened the beaches with the easing of the epidemic and summer has begun, many members of the public are going to use the public beaches in the Southern District. Unfortunately, Hong Kong has been short on lifeguard services for a long time. Coupled with a gradual increase in the number of beach users, accidents arising from a lack of lifeguard services occur frequently.

Over the first half of this year, there have already been more than ten drowning cases in which members of the public drowned while swimming at beaches without lifeguards. A recent example in the Southern District was a 60-year-old man who drowned and died while swimming in Turtle Cove on 1 June 2021. The Turtle Cove Beach, where the incident took place, had no lifeguards on duty due to insufficient manpower. According to the Hong Kong Drowning Report published by the Department of Health in September 2019, for the 193 drowning cases from 2012 to 2016, beaches were the location with the second highest number of drowning deaths (about 59 persons died from drowning).

According to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD)’s long-standing arrangements, LCSD suspends lifeguard services at some of the gazetted beaches under its purview during winter, from November to March every year. On Hong Kong Island, year-round lifeguard service is only provided at the Deep Water Bay Beach; lifeguard services will continue to be provided at the Repulse Bay Beach, the Middle Bay Beach, the Stanley Main Beach and the Big Wave Bay Beach only in November and March; while lifeguard services at the remaining beaches are suspended during winter. At present (since the Government reopened beaches on 16 April 2021), lifeguard services have only been resumed at the Deep Water Bay Beach, the Big Wave Bay Beach, the Repulse Bay Beach, the Stanley Main Beach and the Shek O Beach. Lifeguard services in the Southern District were already acutely insufficient before the epidemic, but with the epidemic easing and beaches reopening, the shortage is now even more marked.

1. How are announcements currently made at beaches in the Southern District to inform members of the public of the presence or absence of lifeguards on duty?

2. Will the existing methods of making appeals be reviewed? For example, will large notices be placed at the entrances and conspicuous locations of beaches in the Southern District to inform swimmers of the presence or absence of lifeguards on duty?

3. In the long run, how will the Government ensure that year-round lifeguard services can be provided at public beaches in the Southern District?

4. With respect to training, when will the Government provide more channels and resources for encouraging members of the public in the Southern District to learn about life-saving and first aid, as well as encouraging members of the public in the Southern District who aspire to be lifeguards to join the profession?

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I should be grateful if you would approve the aforementioned agenda item.

Yours sincerely,

(signed) PANG Cheuk-kei, Michael Southern District Councillor (Stanley & Shek O)

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