Holidaymakers reassured by supervised swimming at Lac de la Ramée, west of Toulouse
The thermometer easily exceeds 33 degrees this weekend in Toulouse, and could even reach 38 on Monday. So ask the supervised beach at Lac de la Ramée, west of the pink city, was crowded this Saturday July 9, 2022, even if the maximum capacity of 400 people at the same time was not reached.
Supervised swimming “it reassures us”
Since this Saturday, swimming is authorized and supervised on a small part of this 37 hectare base. Seven lifeguards, a dozen seasonal workers, security guards take turns, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., every day. They will be there until August 28. Several drownings have taken place in this Lac de la Ramée, including one last April; a 14-year-old boy died. Toulouse residents and tourists who come to enjoy it have these risks in mind and are therefore reassured to be able to take a dip in a space under surveillance.
And very honestly, we don’t see how the accident could happen: in and near the fenced area, there are prevention signs everywhere and recorded announcements broadcast by a loudspeaker which reminds us that children under 10 must imperatively swim with an adult. Four security guards search the bags at the entrance and confiscate picnic knives (even round ones); five lifeguards, posted on the beach and under parasols fixedly on the blue and yellow buoys, positioned at a maximum of 20 meters and 3 meters deep. “It’s a lot and we are a bit on top of each other”, noted Lisa, who nevertheless recognized that “it’s reassuring”. Jacqueline, who came with her four grandchildren, would go “spontaneously swim longer, but it is better to be careful”. Jade, 11, noted where she had her footing, or not: “Where there are crayfish”. Franck, he let his 5 and a half year old child play around a bit, result: “He passed the buoys on the side but a whistle and we brought him back”. Toulouse Métropole spent close to €260,000 to implement this device.
Towards earlier monitoring?
If we did not see that Saturday bathers on the zones where it is not authorized, near the large red signs “no swimming”, the municipal police and the national police have all the same planned to do checks on the entire site this summer. Water health checks are also carried out, whereas last year, in 2021, the base closed due to cyanobacteria in the water.
On France Bleu Occitanie, Philippe Plantade, the vice-president of Toulouse Métropole in charge of sports and leisure bases, had also announced that he was studying the possibility of monitoring the lake on weekends and starting this monitoring in June. rather than ‘in July, in 2023.