Rumst Turns to Mobile Pool for School Swimming: “No Longer Dependent on Other Municipalities”

Rumst is bringing school swimming lessons closer to home with a mobile pool that will move between locations in the municipality. Schools will use the facility at different times throughout the school year.

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We have outsourced school swimming to municipalities in the area for years, but rising prices in Kontich and the renovation of the pool in Duffel have made that no longer feasible.

The municipality previously sent pupils to pools in neighboring towns. Mayor Jurgen Callaerts said rising prices in Kontich and the renovation of the pool in Duffel made that arrangement unworkable. The mobile pool, he said, should lower costs and make it easier for each school to arrange swimming hours.

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In this way, we can reduce costs and each school can arrange its own swimming hours more easily.

The decision has created a financial problem for neighboring Aartselaar. Bart Lambrecht, the municipality’s sports alderman, said Aartselaar had not raised its prices but would lose many classes from Rumst. About 10% of its school swimming hours had come from Rumst pupils, meaning an entire Wednesday morning schedule would disappear.

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For us, it is certainly a financial blow.

Lambrecht said the municipalities understood Rumst’s decision, but questioned whether a mobile pool would meet children’s needs. Learning set swimming distances and building endurance, he said, would be more difficult in the smaller facility. He hopes Rumst children will still visit Aartselaar’s pool during their free time.

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For children, it is important to learn certain distances and work on their endurance. That will be more difficult in a mobile pool.