The Haoling village in East China's Jiangxi Province has built a 600-square-meter swimming pool where children can swim for free, offering a safe alternative to rivers and canals during the summer.

The pool provides children with a safe place to swim while making efficient use of water resources. Water is drawn from the Baita Canal and later discharged into nearby farmland for irrigation.

Parents watch as their children swim in the village-built pool in Haoling village. (Photo: WeChat account "The Charming Town of Longhu Mountain")

The 1 to 1.6-meter-deep pool is open free of charge from 4 pm to 8 pm daily during the summer. A safety attendant is on duty, while village officials take turns patrolling the area to ensure children's safety.

According to village officials, the pool has been in operation for two years. It serves not only local residents but also attracts families from surrounding villages and towns, as well as urban areas up to 20 kilometers away.

"The village built this free swimming pool to give children a safe place to swim, keeping them away from open water and reducing the risk of drowning," said Shu Lianghe, Party branch secretary of Haoling village. "It's a small but practical measure our village Party branch has taken for local residents."

In recent years, China's approach to preventing child drownings has gone beyond simply telling children to stay out of the water, with villages providing safer alternatives and practical services. In Wenyuan village, Jiangxi, residents raised 300,000 yuan (about $44,500) to build a swimming pool, while the Minxin Swimming Pool in Changping village, Hunan Province, has been operating for more than a decade. Across an increasing number of Chinese villages, combining restrictions with practical alternatives has become a common approach to drowning prevention.

(Compiled by Heng Shimin and Wang Ruofan)