May 2: The blistering heat in Chennai is driving youngsters to the corporation swimming pool and the Anna pool at Marina, but these pools are unable to cope with the large numbers of people who want a dip. People using the pools complain of irritation in the eyes due to the poor quality of the water.

Both the swimming pools have seen a quantum jump in the number of people visiting them due to summer holidays and low entry fee of Rs 15 per hour. “The number of people visiting the corporation pool has increased from 300 to around 1,000 a day,” said a trainer at the swimming pool.

The corporation swimming pool offers summer special coaching classes for 15 days at a cost of Rs 500 and the Sports Development Authority charges Rs 1,000 for similar classes at the Tamil Nadu-owned Anna swimming pool. However, people complain that the pools are not being properly maintained.

“There has been an increase in the number of people, especially youngsters, using the corporation pool, but the facility is poorly maintained. After a swim, there is lot of irritation in the eyes due to excessive use of chlorine,” said S. Shanmugham, a regular visitor to the pool.

The father of a 5-year-old student of a private school said his son fell ill immediately after attending the first day of a special summer coaching class at Anna swimming pool. “He caught a throat infection after swmming in the pool. It appears that the water in the pool is not being changed periodically,” he said.

However, a trainer at the Anna pool denied this and claimed that the water is changed regularly. “We take utmost care to ensure that the water is clean. Chlorination is done from time to time to kill any germs in the water,” the trainer said.