Hyderabad: All for a splashing day out

Necklace Road: April and May are the months when children have their summer break and families throng water parks to beat summer heat and exhaustion. Last year due to Covid-induced lockdown, they could not indulge in their favourite activity. As such, this year despite the surging Covid cases, they are rushing to water parks as the mercury is on the rise.

One of the popular water parks located at Necklace Road is being thronged by visitors. Around 7,000 people visited the park last week and number doubled this week, informed the management.

"Children have spent their entire year in pandemic, we kept them in house. They didn't had any extracurricular activities at home.Now that the summer season has started and all schools closed, staying at house is exhausting for our children to beat the summer heat. We are here to enjoy the cool water games,"said a couple. Another parent at a water park in Shamshabad said they almost every year took their kids to other states for a tour but this due to increasing Covid cases they found it to be risky. "Thy only alternative we could think is take them to a water park of their choice and, hence, we are here," said a parent. When asked them about Covid precautions, a family said that they would avoid water rides and would wear a mask.

The water park management at Necklace Road said, "We have been urging the visitors to wear face masks, for which we have also installed posters,stating 'No mask no entry.' During summers last year we faced huge financial losses due to Covid-induced pandemic. To clear all our debts we have now have reopened the park with limited people." The park also started free pick and drop bus service for the visitors, who are willing to come as a group.Another water park in Shamshabad also witnessed a good number of visitors, especially during the weekends. Since the first week of March, the park has seen over 10,000 footfalls.

Urging the citizens to take the Covid-19 precautions seriously, Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivas Rao said, "Utmost care should be taken to see that the senior citizens and children do not participate in any congregations or celebrations as they could be more prone to catching the virus."