I don’t have much sympathy for the fools who keep drowning in lakes and rivers during the hot weather after going out swimming. After the event there is usually the outcry that it is somebody elses fault and call for drastic measures like infilling. Some of this led to many areas of canal being infilled in the decades gone by, because some stupid kids decided to take a dip in the sun- and the problems of contaminated groundwater- still there.
Certainly at the Sandwell Valley this week there have been all sorts of tatooed riff raff emerging from the waters, mostly jibber jabbering on in Eastern European dialects- Colin Firth or Ursula Andress they ain’t. Level 3 heatwave sounded for the West Midlands and instead of the borough’s premier nature conservation site for nesting birds we have a friggin Roma lido. Reminds one of the ruddy duck situation- but where are Natural England?
A few years ago in Sandwell there was an excuse in part, in that the council seemed obssessed with closing swimming baths- particularly in Tipton- the water surrounded area around Rattlechain. But I’m glad to say that the council have at least in this respect got their act together with the new leader Darren Cooper recognising that they are desperately needed. Next step councillor- tackling contaminated land in Sandwell- and I don’t mean burying it!
At the lagoon this week there have been some departures. The useless “aurora” (thunderbird 4) – I said it was a false dawn- has bit the dust.
Thunderbird is go!
The seagulls are doing a good job of turning the black geotextile white.
Get scrubbing Heyrmans, and don’t forget the helpful advice from the HPA human health study issued to local residents to “use soap and water” for clearing up bird droppings in case of white phosphorus content in the faeces.
All that sand looks very tempting now for a summer dip, or a game of beach volleyball. I’m a bit concerned the Heyrmans might try a few lengths to test the depths. The PPE appears to have gone out the window, with shorts and T’ shirts.
Hoe is het opknoping?
But when they have packed up their clogs and gone clip -clippity- clop back home and ERM have sailed off back to Bristol, who will take up the monitoring mantle of the site from day to day? Will Solvay “be there” in case of human or avian distress in the water?
They have certainly demonstrated (as Rhodia), that they have all the “rescue” equipment necessary for the job, as this picture below demonstrates when they retrieved a dead swan from the lagoon last year. Although they claim not to have seen it in distress which would have added to the evidence of white phosphorus poisoning. We don’t believe their story.
With such a fine bevvy of babes and hunks, I have every confidence that if a youngster scaled the fence and went for a dip getting into difficulty and convulsions, the Trinity Street lifeguards would not panic but put into action their long rehearsed lines and spring forth with their red Proban trunks and boards a soaring down the Tipton Road to perform the heimlich maneuver and the kiss of life.
