Due to the energy crisis, swimming pools across Wales are under threat as it costs so much money to heat the water.
Swim Wales has warned that nearly 150 public swimming pools in Wales could close due to high energy bills. And other swimming pools in Wales have also raised the price of tickets for operation.
Maindy Pool is a public swimming pool in Cardiff. It has provided high-quality leisure facilities to the surrounding residents for many years. But things have changed with the soaring energy bills.
Maindy Pool manager Ben Clarke said the energy crisis had a big impact on the pool because it relied so heavily on energy.
“It is true that a lot of pools have lowered the temperature of the pool slightly to save on gas heating the pool, but the temperature of the bath has not changed,” Mr.Clarke says.
Sadaf Malik swims here four times a month. She says the Maindy pool is very nice, but now the pool isn’t heated enough, and the showers are not as hot as they used to be. She thinks they’ve turned down the heating system, and the number of visitors is down.
“Yeah, I feel like a lot of people don’t come anymore. There are not as many people in the pools as there were. Maybe a year or two ago,” Sadaf Malik says.
“Due to our energy bills have shot up, we had to cut our energy consumption without a huge impact on customers,” Ben Clarke says.
Swim Wales says the number of participants in this sport is at an all-time high, with 100,000 children and 400,000 adults swimming every week in Wales. Due to the energy crisis, people’s positivity for swimming has been influenced.
Swim Wales has joined the Save Our Pools campaign. It is hoped that future energy-saving measures will help keep swimming pools and leisure facilities running.