Irrigation Canals are Starting to Fill with Water – Help Your Children Stay Safe
KENNEWICK, Wash. - These days, canals aren't just running through farmland, they run right behind our backyards.
Now that they're starting to fill up with water again, it's important to make sure young kids stay safe around the canals.
"One of the leading causes of drowning is parents not focused on their kids, keeping their eyes off the kids for too long. If you have a fence that you're able to put up, that's a good start. Also education is important, teaching your kids to stay away from bodies of water, especially if they're alone, and making sure if they are going to play out back where the canal runs through, that they have an adult supervising them," says Matthew Berglund with the Kennewick Irrigation District.
The surface of the water may look calm but the speed of the current can vary depending on the location, sometimes reaching up to 3 miles per hour, or 4.5 feet per second. As a public safety example in 2012, a child's shoe was dropped into the canal to provide a visual of how fast the water travels. In two minutes, the shoe traveled 540 feet and within 5 minutes, it was about a quarter mile away from where it was dropped.
Berglund adds, "The canals can be, especially in the summertime when algae builds up, extremely slippery. If you fall in it's difficult to climb out of. The water current can be fast in areas as well, even if you're a good swimmer. There's debris, anything from tumbleweeds, car tires, farming equipment, all different kinds of things could be floating in there that you can't see because the water is dark. Even if you were able to stand up in the water, the debris could easily knock you off your feet again."
Berglund also recommends that if you do see someone who has fallen in, call 911 first instead of jumping in to save them. A trained dive-and-rescue team can get them out, and police will call KID who can turn off the water in that area for a safe rescue.