There should have been 45 of them in Gironde, 35 in Landes. Mobilized by the Olympic Games in Paris, they will not come this summer to monitor the beaches of the Atlantic coast. But, since the announcement of their withdrawal, during 2023, solutions have been found, as explained by Hervé Bouyrie, mayor of Messanges (Landes).
“All the municipalities have organized themselves to recruit civilian rescuers in large numbers and the fact of being able to anticipate has allowed us to do so without pressure. We must remember that last summer, due to urban violence, the same CRS troops were suddenly taken away from us on the evening of June 30, even though they had arrived that very morning!”
Towards surveillance exclusively entrusted to civilians in the future?
“We recruited 490 lifeguards for the 58 lifeguard stations in the department and we had 680 requests,” confirms Stéphanie Barneix, beach surveillance officer in Landes. “All the awareness-raising work we have been doing for years in schools to encourage vocations is paying off.”
The situation is identical in the Gironde neighbours where recruitment was massive in the spring. “350 lifeguards on the entire Gironde coast for more than 500 applications, summarises Guillaume Counilh, rescue coordinator in Lacanau: all the beaches will be monitored as in previous years and even more so since we have increased our opening hours.”
The feared “shortage” has therefore not occurred. Many mayors are now in favor of beach surveillance being entrusted exclusively to civilians in the future: “It will cost the communities more,” confides Hervé Bouyrie in Messanges. “But we can no longer depend on decisions that could destabilize the system at any time.”
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