From remote communities to Championships

You don’t need to convince us of the many layers of benefits that a well-built pool brings to a community, but In Australia, they have made it a policy! And Myrtha’s 20 years of building pools throughout the country have been an inspiration at many levels.

With only days to go before the FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne, we would like to share thoughts not only on our contribution to great competitive aquatic centres, but also our work in which swimming is used to motivate good education habits and social inclusion. We refer to the government programme dubbed ‘No School, no Pool‘, which has resulted in the construction of swimming pools in some of the most remote areas of the country, including the aboriginal communities of Burrigurrah, Jigalong, Yendeyarra, and Magarinya. The catch with these new venues, is that to be allowed to use the pools, the kids must go to school!

In addition to promoting education in these communities, the project provides students with a safe place to cool off (and have fun) during the scorching summers, while reducing tragic cases of drowning that can occur in unsupervised swimming areas and streams.

Not only attendance at school is supported by the government’s ‘No School, No Pool’ programme, the initiative also promotes a healthy and active lifestyle. And studies by the Telethon Kids Institute, show that the plan is working. After starting swimming in the new facilities, students in the area schools that were shown to be less prone to skin, hearing and breathing diseases.

Myrtha technology has contributed to these wonderful outcomes in multiple ways. Our modular pool-building system makes it easy to transport all components to even the most remote areas of the continent, and our engineered solution is uniquely able to accommodate installations in difficult terrain, even in seismic zones.

Thanks to our experience with the Australian government, Myrtha also chosen to create the pool in the magnificent Australian Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale. As a testament to the country’s cultural connection to water, a large, fully functional pool was built inside the pavilion. Called, ‘The Pool‘, the instillation was also presented as a symbol of life and reconnection with nature.

When the Biennale concluded, the modular pool was simply dismantled and taken home to Australia to be rebuilt as the focal point of the ‘No School, no Pool’ project! A fitting example of the deep collaboration between Australia and Myrtha Pools.