Water safety problems were discussed in the Government

The session of the Government Commission for Emergency Situations and Fire Safety chaired by the deputy Prime Minister of the RB Government Rafail Divaev was held in the RB Government House. The subject of the session was water safety and lifesaving arrangements.

"The number of fatalities in water has been continuously decreasing over the last seven years. In Ufa, this rate has fallen down tenfold," Sergey Karas, the deputy head of the Chief Directorate of the MES for Bashkortostan, said. "This points to the fact that preventive work and efficient organization of rescue forces and facilities can be very effective."

This year highest death toll has been registered in Krasnokama, Davlecanovo and Ufa regions. There are objective reasons for that: the Lower Belaya and the Kama, Lake Aslykul attract tourists from across the republic, and residents of million-plus Ufa prefer to vacation in the suburbs. The heads of administrations of these municipal regions were invited to the session to tell about the measures they had taken to maintain the safety in public bathing places.

"34 search and rescue operations have been carried out and 11 people have been rescued to this date. At the same time, our divers had to raise 23 bodies from the bottom. It is too much for the start of the bathing season," Vladimir Temashev, the head of the RB emergency rescue service, said. "11 diving stations work in the republic, mobile search and rescue teams are created on their basis. We have held 19 training sessions to practise different emergency situations and rescue actions."

"People have an old and well-established attitude to this problem: if you are drowning, you are on your own," Nadezhda Kuleshova, the chairman of the Bashkir regional branch of the All-Russian Life Saving Service, mentioned. "That's why I believe that the best thing we can do for our safety is teach children swimming and proper behaviour in the water."

According to the Chief Directorate of the MES of Russia for Bashkortostan, 44 people, 4 children and one woman among them, have been drowned since the start of 2010. Most of them bathed being under the influence of drink.