Twenty-two school pools have closed in the Otago region in the past decade, and water safety officials believe the closures are a major factor in creating a generation of young people who cannot swim.
Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Matt Claridge said 123 people drowned in New Zealand during 2011, up 41% on the previous year and the worst annual drowning toll since 2003.
He said 10 Otago residents drowned in New Zealand waters during 2011 - six of them in Otago waters - and the high proportion of young children drowning across the country was "a tragedy for the nation".
He believed the closure of school pools was one of the major contributors to the increase in drowning statistics in 2011, and expected the situation to worsen by 2020 as the present generation of children moved through the system without basic swimming skills.
Only one in five 12-year-olds meet Water Safety New Zealand's minimum survival standard of swimming 200m.
There are 41 primary and intermediate school swimming pools in Otago, and 22 that have been closed since 2002.
Eight of those pools closed when the schools they were attached to closed.
One school working hard to keep its pool open is Outram School, on the Taieri Plain.
Outram School Pool committee chairman Darryl MacKenzie said the pool was built in 1951 and was later covered and heated. However, it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep it operational because of funding constraints.
"The cost varies from year to year, depending on how much maintenance is required. On average, it costs between $8000 and $10,000 per year."
Mr MacKenzie said funding came mainly from community users of the school's pool, by selling keys during the summer season and hiring the pool out for private swimming lessons.
Community and school fundraising was also a major contributor to funding.
"The Government, in all its wisdom, gives us about $200 a year. It doesn't even cover the chemicals for the pool for a term.
"In the short term, if we keep the pool as it is, we can keep up with maintenance costs."
However, the concern was the 0.9m-deep pool was becoming too small for many senior pupils, and the committee was now investigating refurbishing the facility.
Cost may be a prohibiting factor though.
Mr MacKenzie said it was important the pool remained open so a generation of children from Outram did not end up unable to swim.
"The last thing we want is for one of our kids to become a statistic, particularly seeing as we have a popular swimming spot at Outram Glen."
A Ministry of Education spokeswoman said schools had to teach pupils fundamental aquatics skills by the end of year 6, but did not have to have an on-site pool to do so.
She said schools received maintenance funding for pools in their operational funding, calculated on pool size, and was used for running costs such as pool chemicals and water, heating and testing charges.
However, schools using a community pool could use the funding they would have spent on operating expenses to pay entry charges and costs of transporting pupils to the pool, she said.
Many schools believed having their own pool was better because it was accessible and could be used when they wanted to use it.
Tarras School principal Noelene Pullar said the school's pool fell into disrepair in the late 1990s, but was refurbished when she noted many of her pupils were not comfortable in water.
Any time school swimming competitions were held, her pupils would avoid entering, she said.
Being in a remote area meant it was not feasible to bus the children to a community pool, she said.
Mr Claridge said Water Safety New Zealand (WSNZ) was working on plans aimed at encouraging Government organisations to invest more in school pools.
WSNZ also hoped to fund the construction of 10 new school pools each year and the redevelopment of current school pools to keep them operational, as well as providing mobile pools which could be taken by trailer to different schools for a term.
However, it was too early to say whether any of the proposals would benefit Otago schools, he said.
