The cost of 2 drownings: $8 million USD, 2 young lives, and demolition of a Water Park in Vietnam.

When a lack of regulations is combined with bad operators looking for quick returns are combined, incidents happen. A horrible and saddening example about how NOT to Operate a water park.

* Images may be shocking. Faces of victims are blurred out for privacy reasons. These images highlight the seriousness of running bad Operations practises.

Introduction

Announced as Hanoi’s (Vietnam) Largest Water Park, the … Water Park has been quoted to be built to “European Standards” and had over 9 slides/attractions on 3 hectares. This made it Vietnam’s capital city’s Largest Water Park with an estimated investment of 8,000,000+ USD. Construction started in November 2018 by a company stating: “The design, supply and installation of this project has confirmed the leading capacity of … Group in the water park field”. 

The park was developed by …, a subsidiary of Vietnamese real estate company … .

Opening

The park opened on 10 June 2019 with a lot of fanfare and “Thousands of visitors”.

First problems and first drowning

On the opening day of the park (the 10th) the local government came to inspect the park and found that despite having a business license, other licenses were missing.

On the morning of the 12th of June (2 days after opening) the local government has decided to suspend the operations of the park due to missing licenses. However, in the afternoon the first drowning of a 4-year-old boy occurred inside the lazy river. The boy was walking with a guardian next to the river and fell in and drowned. The boy passed away the next day in the hospital on 13 June 2019

First Drowning victim seemingly getting first aid: https://thoidai.com.vn/tin-moi-vu-be-trai-duoi-nuoc-trong-ngay-cong-vien-nuoc-thanh-ha-bi-dinh-chi-hoat-dong-79787.html

The park was fined 860USD (20 million VND) by the government for not having proper Lifeguard licenses and training. The park was issued licenses after 20 days.

Second drowning and other issues

The second drowning was 6-year-old boy and happened on 22 September 2019. At this point, many articles surfaced stating that not enough lifejackets and tubes were available, not enough lifeguards were available to monitor swimmers, staff was hiding inside “huts” and dirty water with people complaining about itchy skin hours after visiting the park.

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Closure and responsibility

The park was closed by the authorities on the 23 of September 2019. The authorities stated that only swimming pools (2 only) are under responsibility of the government and that slides and swimming/play areas like the lazy river are not their responsibility to certify.

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Demolishing of the park

The company owning the waterpark was requested to demolish the park, but didn’t do this within the required time frame. On 15 and 16 January 2019, the local government send over a 100 officials, 5 excavators and countless cranes came on-site to flatten and demolish the entire park in 2 days. 

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The conclusion

2 fatal drownings over the course of 4 months caused Hanoi’s largest 8 million USD water park to operate for less than 6 months, before being demolished with countless jobs, revenue, and two children’s lives lost.

Hopefully, this extremely sad loss of life will lead to improvements in the Asian waterpark industry like Certified lifeguards by an independent organization, a independent auditing program, government regulations for construction and operational safety in water and amusement parks and awareness from operators to follow the highest possible standards.

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