Pool program has ripple effect in indigenous communities

Five-year-old Zakiem Coppin last month lined up alongside visiting Olympian Libby Trickett like he was on the 100m starting blocks.

No matter he had never dived into the deep end at the Yandeyarra remote community swimming pool before - when Trickett gave the word, he hurled himself in.

After he popped back up - hurriedly dog-paddling but keeping his head above water - pool manager Jacqui Forbes was proud.

She has run the pool in Yandeyarra, 140km south-east of Port Hedland, for Royal Life Saving WA for the past six months, but this was the first time Zakiem had faced up to the deep end.

"Zakiem wasn't putting his face in the water (when I arrived) … now he is in the deep end floating around," she said.

"It is wonderful to see that level of progression - (if) you were in a town pool, you would only see those kids once a week if you are lucky.

"But because you see them here every day, you get a really good relationship with them … the parents trust you with their kids - you make a difference for the community."

At remote communities across WA, the State Government and Royal Life Saving WA's pool program has made a big difference.

Not only have the pools, funded by the Government and managed by RLS, proved popular entertainment, they have also been found to produce educational and health benefits for remote children.

While the first pools, including Yandeyarra's, were built in 2000, it was not until 2006 that their benefits were better understood.

It was then that long-running research - based on seven North West communities and the Kimberley townships of Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing - found children swimming regularly in the chlorinated water had greatly reduced incidences of skin, eye and respiratory infections. In one instance, the report compared the prevalence of disease and infection among Jigalong children before the pools were built with results from 2005.

"In Jigalong alone, there (has) been … a 44 per cent reduction in the number of cases of ear disease, a 51 per cent reduction in the incidence of skin disease and a 63 per cent reduction in the number of cases involving respiratory disease," the report said.

It also found a series of flow-on benefits, ranging from helping to promote healthier lifestyles and water awareness to big boosts to school attendance rates through "no school, no pool" rules.

RLS general manager community relations Greg Tate said the benefits found in the State Government standing committee report were echoed across the six WA remote communities with RLS pools, including Yandeyarra.

He said the program had been such a success, the only question now was why there were not more.

"There is so much that fails in remote communities and this is something that works," he said. He said at the heart of the program's success was its pool managers.

While visits, such as that by former Olympic swimmers Libby and Luke Trickett and water polo players Rebecca Rippon and Kate Hooper last month, were entertaining, they were also fleeting.

By contrast, Ms Forbes - a former international water polo player for New Zealand - will spend nine out of 12 months running the pool in Yandeyarra.

Earlier she completed a five-year stint managing RLS's remote pool at the Burringah community, 480km east of Carnarvon.

Compared to other fly-in, fly-out-type programs, Mr Tate said his managers built lasting relationships.

Ms Forbes agrees. She works closely with the Yandeyarra Remote Community School and has the backing of its principal Graham Boyd.

And while Yandeyarra's under-10s were fanatical about visiting the pool every day, she said she was also tackling the harder challenge of attracting teenagers and the children's parents.

Most adults prefer a dip in the river when it rains.

Despite this, there has been some early success.

Recently, Ms Forbes helped Yandeyarra Station pastoral project manager Ian Hayes overcome a childhood phobia of water and take his first dip in decades.

Now, Mr Hayes has made it mandatory for his station hands to take a daily aqua class in the pool.

For Ms Forbes, it is a case of the more the merrier.