To Swim or not to Swim?
#1
BE Enthusiast
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2019
Location: Lagos and Hong Kong
Posts: 570
To Swim or not to Swim?
I’ve been swimming in my condominium pool while the municipal pool has been closed for maintenance and one day last week the pool man was leaving as I was going in. He told me he had added chemicals to the pool and that I should wait 15-20 minutes before swimming, which I did. A few days later I was halfway through my swim when a different pool man turned up and tipped a bucket of white crystals in the trough around the edge of the pool. I asked him if I was ok to keep swimming and he said yes, no problem. I think one of them was telling me porkies, but which one? Is it safe to swim when this stuff is added or not?
#2
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2021
Posts: 41
Re: To Swim or not to Swim?
I used to look after a pool in Dorset day to day. Colin who was the real expert worked for Spruce Pools did all the technical stuff, opened it up in Summer closed it down in winter, always used to say after adding anything chlorine booster, Ph balancer "give it an hour to dissipate.
Hope it helps
Best
Eddie
"
Hope it helps
Best
Eddie
"
#6
BE Enthusiast
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 808
Re: To Swim or not to Swim?
Never mind pools................What about the Praias Fluviais ? These look inviting in the pictures............But how safe is it to swim in water potentially infected by rat and other animal urine etc. ? For that matter.............do the water companies discharge sewage into rivers, as apparently they do in the UK ?
#7
Re: To Swim or not to Swim?
The headlines about the UK discharging waste were rather misleading; nothing to do with any change in regulation, it was due to excessive rainfall overwhelming the combined sewage / drainage systems.
EU regs say such systems should be modernized, and UK regs still say the same thing.
That won't happen here because it hasn't rained.
Some municipalities have separated the sewage system from the rain water drains (I believe most or all of the Algarve has more modern, separated systems).
Sea water often gets flagged as unsafe for a variety of reasons; too much heat can cause fish die off and algae blooms for instance.
EU regs say such systems should be modernized, and UK regs still say the same thing.
That won't happen here because it hasn't rained.
Some municipalities have separated the sewage system from the rain water drains (I believe most or all of the Algarve has more modern, separated systems).
Sea water often gets flagged as unsafe for a variety of reasons; too much heat can cause fish die off and algae blooms for instance.
#8
Re: To Swim or not to Swim?
Never mind pools................What about the Praias Fluviais ? These look inviting in the pictures............But how safe is it to swim in water potentially infected by rat and other animal urine etc. ? For that matter.............do the water companies discharge sewage into rivers, as apparently they do in the UK ?
Portugal is not a third-world country. Analytical Laboratories exist all over the place and testing water purity is relatively straightforward and required by health regulations, whether for a praia fluvial or otherwise.