training of the lifeguards is organised by that province. beach lifeguards in belgium are trained by the wobra and are mostly students who are employed for a month during the summer holidays (july and august). some municipalities also employ lifeguards in june and september. to obtain uniformity, all municipalities from the belgian coast joined the ikwv this is the coordinating organisation for all the municipalities for lifeguard service. the organisation of ikwv has made the belgian coastline one of the safest coastlines of the world in a couple decades. brazil in brazil, firefighting services, accident assistance, and the rescue of people drowning on beaches, rivers, and lakes are maintained by each state's fire department. the rescue of drowning people in private places is the responsibility of the owner of the place. like the military polices, responsible for ostensive policing, the members of the fire departaments are also considered military, including lifeguards. the state military police and state fire departaments are auxiliary institutions and reserves of the brazilian army. considering the service provided by fire departments insufficient, some brazilian cities have their own lifeguard services, but most brazilian lifeguards are members of fire departments. canada in canada, all lifeguards and assistant lifeguards are certified by the lifesaving society of canada or the canadian red cross. the lifeguarding certification offered by the lss is the national lifeguard program, which was officially launched in 1964. there are four types of lifeguard certification: pool, waterpark, waterfront and surf. in november 2009, the canadian red cross lifeguard program was developed in accordance with international research and quality standards. the red cross lifeguard program is accepted in many provinces across the country. denmark in denmark the lifeguard-services are divided into two major groups. the beach lifeguards, which are established on a voluntarily basis by the beach administrators (in most cases the municipality). there are three main lifeguard service providers, one heavily sponsored: trygfonden kystlivredning, which is backed by trygfonden (danish foundation) while den nordsjællandske kystlivredningstjeneste are sponsored by the councils at the zealand northshore. in copenhagen there is team bade lifeguard service, run by copenhagen municipality. all public pools (both commercial and government) are required to "provide a secure and safe environment" and thus lifeguards. unlike the beach lifeguards, these have to pass a government approved test as well as a yearly a physical examination and first aid test. germany a member of the wasserwacht observing a regatta in germany three major organizations exist that train people in swimming, lifesaving and which maintain lifeguard services at public beaches, lakes etc. all three are mainly based on volunteer work. the dlrg (deutsche lebens-rettungs-gesellschaft – german life saving society) is the largest aquatic lifeguard organization in the world with more than 1,000,000 members and promoters. the wasserwacht (water watch) is a division of the german red cross. third is the wasserrettungsdienst of the arbeiter-samariter-bund deutschland. also the fire departments will maintain lifeguard services at rivers, coasts and lakes. india in india the longest coast manned by lifeguards is goa's 105 km shoreline. drishti marine holds government contracts with a body of 710 professionally trained lifeguards across goa and mumbai. they have 5000+ rescues on record since starting operations in 2008. the lifeguards are trained by special rescue training academy (srta) and enlisted as government first response for emergency services such as flood rescue. the lifeguards in goa are also trained in stranded marine mammal rescue as part of ocean watch a collaborative effort between drishti marine, terra conscious, goa forest department and iucn india. they conduct regular interventions for turtles and dolphins caught in ghost nets. in october 2018 drishti lifeguards were water safety partners for india's first ironman held in miramar goa. iran in iran, the lifesaving organization is the "iran lifesaving organization." it has an areas roughly equal to that of the united kingdom, france, spain, and germany combined, or somewhat more than the us state of alaska. iran has a coastline to the caspian sea to the north, and the persian gulf and the gulf of oman to the south. ireland sign in bray, ireland explaining lifeguard flags. in ireland, the statutory body established to promote water safety is "irish water safety" who train and award lifeguards with the national pool lifeguard award, the national beach lifeguard award and the inland open water lifeguard award. in addition in ireland the royal lifesaving society (rlss), through independent trainer assessors / clubs, trains and qualifies lifeguards with the national pool lifeguard qualification (nplq) and the national beach lifeguard qualification (nblq). italy in italy lifeguard are certified by the italian swimming federation the national lifesaving society and the italian water rescue federation. the italian swimming federation's diploma is recognized abroad by the country affiliated to ils whilst the national lifesaving society is active member and internationally recognized by the international maritime rescue federation. differences exist between pool, lakes and sea diplomas. also italian red cross has a special branch called opsa (polyvalent water rescue operators) that has some lifeguards duties in some parts of italy. lifeguards in italy are not organised in a unique service: every venue has its own lifeguards, depending on licenses, danger and requests. public beaches are not patrolled by an organisation, but each comune calls on duty freelance lifeguards during summer or particular events, when public funds can afford the costs. in some beaches, where there hotels or other structures have licenses, there is the obligation to have lifeguards, that are paid by the structure itself. new zealand in new zealand the term lifeguard generally refers to swimming pool lifeguards but can be used interchangeably with lifesaver. these are qualified paid professionals employed by the pool management to watch over pool users. surf life saving new zealand (slsnz) is responsible for training and maintaining coastal surf lifesaving in new zealand. surf lifesavers patrol various beaches in new zealand. lifesavers are able to sit their bronze medallion which qualifies them as a volunteer surf lifeguards. volunteers patrol new zealand's beaches on weekends over the summer months from labour day to around easter. paid lifeguards patrol beaches during the week over the busiest summer months. they also come under the control of slsnz. netherlands dutch lifeguard truck the knbrd or reddingsbrigade is the dutch lifeguard association. the netherlands has more than 200 units on the dutch beaches, and over 5000 active volunteers. the lifeguards secure the dutch coastline and also many cities that have a lot of swimming water, like lakes. they also provide training. the knbrd wears the international clothing style which is yellow/red. the knbrd works together with the knrm. additionally, many local rescue teams have one or more disaster units which can be called in case of major flooding anywhere in the country. portugal lifeguard in barcelona in portugal, the lifeguard service is coordinated by the portuguese lifeguard institute (isn). under the technical tutelage of the isn, several organizations provide lifeguard services in the portuguese maritime and river beaches. the entities that have a concession to explore a beach are obliged to contract a lifeguard service to be provided in the respective concession area. in the cases of beaches that are not under concession, the contracting and providing of lifeguard services is usually done by the local municipalities. the isn is responsible for the establishment of standards for the training, equipment and uniforms of the lifeguards. singapore in singapore the lifesaving organization is the singapore lifesaving society(slss) which is responsible for administering lifesaving awards. lifeguards have to earn their lifesaving 1, 2 and 3 awards before they are allowed to move on to bronze medallion which is the minimum requirement for employment in most singapore pools. spain in spain there are many organizations that teach and train people in lifesaving. the international lifeguard society and royal spanish rescue and lifesaving federation are a couple of the prominent organizations. switzerland in switzerland the lifesaving organization is the swiss lifesaving society. south africa lifeguards in south africa are certified through lifesaving south africa, a regulatory body. all lifesaving award (la) trainees are thoroughly trained in surf rescue with pool and open water training being incorporated into the la course. once a year, lifesaving sa holds an annual retest for all la certified lifeguards. if this retest is not completed or is failed three years consecutively the la certification lapses. in the event of the la certification lapsing the lifeguard will have to redo the la course in its entirety. common equipment used by lifeguards in rescue situations are: rigid torpedo buoys, soft torpedo buoys, rescue craft (malibu boards), paddle skis, box line, throw line and spinal boards. common equipment used by lifeguards in first aid situations are: saline solution, bandages, antiseptics, antihistamines, oxygen kits, latex gloves, laerdal pocket masks, splints, rescue blankets and first aid kits. beaches in south africa are contracted out to independent or private companies. these companies submit tenders, on an annual basis, to local municipalities/government. lifeguards who are not permanently employed by a company often find work during the holiday periods as temp lifeguards on main beaches. often students who hold la certification will work on a day by day basis during busy seasons. many main beaches such as scottburgh and st michaels beaches have voluntary lifeguard clubs. these clubs recruit new members into the lifeguard niche by way of their nipper and junior lifesaving award programs. a cost-effective way of obtaining the la certification would be to join a club and do the course, at a reduced rate, through that club. taiwan in taiwan there are three main lifesaving organizations providing lifeguard licenses and training, one is called national water life saving association republic of china (nwlsaroc) another is called the red cross society of the republic of china and national chinese surf life saving association(ncslsa). nwlsa was first launched in 1970 and aided by australians surf life savers. the red cross society was founded around 1949. nwlsa joined the international life saving federation in 1994. national chinese surf lifesaving association, founded in 1993 and joined ils as associated member in 1997, is the first and only organization that focus on training surf lifesaver and open-water lifeguard in taiwan. pool lifeguards in the united kingdom, there are three awarding bodies for lifeguard qualifications, highfield awarding body for compliance (habc), the swimming teachers association, and the royal life saving society uk (rlss). the organisations' qualifications are sta level 2 award for pool lifeguard / sta professional award for pool lifeguard (title in scotland,) the habc level 2 award in pool lifeguarding (qcf) and the national pool lifeguard qualification respectively. the national pool lifeguard qualification is administered by the institute of qualified lifeguards (iql) on behalf of the rlss. all three qualifications are recognised professionally within the united kingdom and enable the holder to work as a professional pool lifeguard satisfying all health and safety executive (hse) regulations. for public swimming sessions a full lifeguard qualification is recommended by the hse in the managing health and safety in swimming pools manual. a full pool lifeguard course lasts a minimum of 36 hours and ends with external examiners testing the individuals both on land and in the water and includes an examination paper (verbal in generation 8 nplq, however this has been replaced with multiple choice questions in the new generation 9, consisting of three sections; first aid, lifeguarding situations and pool specifics). the qualification is valid for two years from the date of assessment. a minimum of 20 hours training must be logged in those two years for the individual to be eligible to submit for a renewal examination. the employer of the lifeguard should provide training every month in lifeguard skills and resuscitation training to help it comply with hse guidelines. additional units which all full pool lifeguards are assessed vigorously and which all leisure facilities must have (public and private) is the use of spinal boards, a specialist piece of rescue equipment designed for immobilizing a casualty suspected of suffering a spinal cord injury. they are trained in lifeguarding, first aid and cpr and are typically stationed at beaches, pools, or other bodies of water where there is a risk of drowning. habc/rlss qualifications are trained by tas (trainer/assessors) and sta qualifications are trained by tutors. these are experienced lifeguards or lifesavers who have undergone additional training to