Wanted for tourist beach: lifeguard who can swim

Every year two million tourists flock to Goa with little more than a swimsuit and a desire to flop on one of the famed palm-fringed beaches that dot the western Indian coast.

But they may consider packing a life jacket after learning that the verdant state’s treacherous coastline, stretching 105 kilometres (65 miles) along the Arabian Sea, is manned by only nine qualified lifeguards.

With the peak tourist season upon it, the authorities in Goa attempted earlier this year to sign up more than 100 lifeguards amid concern about the number of drownings.

That recruitment drive has hit a stumbling block, however, after the Goa Tourism Development Corporation discovered that only one of the 129 recruits could swim 400 metres in the required time of nine minutes.

As many as 50 could not complete the distance at all, even in the relatively calm surroundings of a swimming pool.