As part of the Keep Watch 2009 campaign Royal Life Saving is urging all Australians to take action this weekend and put their home pool through a massive safety check.

59% of all toddler drowning deaths in the last 12 months happened in a backyard swimming pool. Keep Watch 2009 is focused on reducing toddler drowning with Royal Life Saving and PoolWerx working together to prevent toddler drownings with the Home Pool Safety Website and Checklist. 

www.homepoolsafety.com.au gives you lots of information and shows you a checklist so you can check your backyard pool for safety.

It's been a horror year in the past 12 months for drowning deaths and a real wake up call. We urge the community to be vigilant because there's such a massive impact on all the parents, relatives and friends left behind after each drowning tragedy.

In the past 12 months toddler drowning deaths in Australia have risen dramatically against the 5 year average. This is of enormous concern.

Without question literally thousands and thousands of pools across Australia are potential death traps because they either have fencing that is loose and unsafe - often because of wear and tear - or gates that aren't working properly.

In the past 12 months alone figures show 32 young children aged 0-4 died in drowning tragedies. 59% were in swimming pools, 84% of the children fell or wandered into water and 41% of the deaths happened during summer.

The Keep Watch campaign is once again being supported by the healthy pool people PoolWerx who are mobilising their entire network of franchisees to help Royal Life Saving get vital pool safety messages across to thousands of Australians. PoolWerx CEO John O'Brien said the network of retail hubs and mobile service vans across Australia were united in helping promote the vital Keep Watch message.

This year's campaign has a central message of make this weekend your home pool safety weekend. One of the big problems is that people may think their pool fencing is perfectly safe when in fact erosion, storm damage or wear and tear may well have created weakness in the fencing. 

Many people leave pool gates propped open or have gates that close but do not lock. Both these issues can potentially lead to tragedy. 

Home swimming pools are the most dangerous aquatic locations for young children and have been clearly recognised as a priority area in the Australian Water Safety Strategy that covers the period 2008-2011. Tragically all too often after a drowning death we hear parents telling us they were going to get around to fixing a safety issue with the pool.

We've made it really easy for everybody by creating a simple and effective pool safety checklist which doesn't take long to fill out and takes people through key issues. Just go to www.homepoolsafety.com.au to see the checklist and get lots of tips so you can be vigilant all year round.

We're deeply concerned that research shows that in some areas of Australia up to 80% of pools are simply non compliant with current safety standards. Swimming pool fences should be no more than 100 millimetres from the ground and should be at least 1.2 metres high with no vertical gaps more than 100 millimetres apart.

Olympic swimming star Samantha Riley is once again backing the Keep Watch program and she's urging all parents around the nation to be vigilant and to visit homepoolsafety.com.au to get free fact sheets and the home pool safety checklist.

All drowning deaths are preventable and effective fencing and supervision can reduce tragedies. Most toddler drownings are unfortunately silent deaths and if a child gets into a backyard pool unsupervised it can literally be a matter of seconds before tragedy strikes.

On top of the toddler drowning deaths that take place each year, there are many more near drowning incidents where children may suffer brain damage as a result of the incident. Royal Life Saving says for every drowning death there are around 4 hospitalisations. Of those, one or two will have permanent brain damage.

Defective fencing is so dangerous and you may not see the problem until tragedy strikes. We can't afford to be complacent. Run the safety checks. Well established suburbs often have issues because the pool fencing may have been there for a long time - or there may be no fencing at all.

Any vegetation growing around a pool should be cut back because young, curious kids often use this to climb into a pool. Always make sure pool chemicals are stored securely out of reach of children. We have no doubt people underestimate the dangers around a home pool. All pools in Australia have to be fenced. It's a legal requirement.

Obviously we want people to have fun. Time spent in water helps children physical and intellectual development and obviously the ability to safely enjoy water benefits us throughout our life.

The 2009 Keep Watch campaign is also being supported by the Samuel Morris Foundation. Samuel was tragically affected after a near drowning incident in 2006 that left him with severe brain injury and lifelong disabilities.

Samuel's father Michael Morris said "I urge everybody to check their pool safety really carefully. We can all do more to prevent drownings. The Keep Watch messages are vital."

"My son was changed forever after a near drowning experience when he got into our pool by shaking a faulty panel which came away and gave him access to the pool. We didn't know the panel was faulty and it wasn't until later we came to understand our pool fence had never been inspected properly. We assumed when we moved in that the fence complied with Australian standards. It didn't."

On rural properties it isn't realistic to fence off a dam or lake. We suggest creating a child safe area near to your home and away from the body of water which needs to be enclosed and supervised at all times.

We are once again highlighting the key is to supervise, learn resuscitation, familiarise your child with water and obviously fence your pool and lock the gate. Keep Watch means constant active supervision, not an occasional glance so that you can have great fun over summer.