Tourists get into sea avoiding safety rules

Drowning of tourists and other accidents in Cox’s Bazar sea beach have become a serious concern as many people often violate safety rules and get into the water in risky areas and times.

The Cox’s Bazar district administration has given many signboards from Laboni point to Sugandha point, writing ‘there is a risk of drowning or missing if someone gets into the sea for taking bath ignoring the restrictions’.

But, hundreds of tourists take bath in the saline water at Cox's Bazar beach every day. The district administration, Tourist Police and Life Guard Forces fail to impose restrictions on tourists to go to the sea risking their lives.

According to Life Guard Forces, their members rescued at least 87 people including 11 dead bodies this year.
“A total of 41 tourists lost their lives in the beach area while taking bath in the Bay from 2014 to till today. Besides, around 587 endangered tourists were rescued alive,” said Saifullah Sifat, supervisor of Life Guard Forces.

Many members of us have been deployed at the points to ensure safety of people bathing there. But defying risk, many tourists go into the sea beyond the safe zone for a bath. There is a ban on bathing in the sea during ebb tide but the tourists seldom follow it, he said.

During a visit to the sea beach on Friday it was found that although red flags were hoisted during ebb tide many tourists ignored the danger signal and hired tubes to go to the sea on those.

Despite widespread awareness campaign, many tourists continue to ignore safety rules, said Executive Magistrate Masud Rana.