This year alone, there have been seven fatal drownings across the city — the highest since 2019.

Lawmakers and advocates alike are sounding the alarm, calling for more safe swimming education and oversight while this summer marked another year of lifeguard shortages.

Earlier this year, the union that represents lifeguards and the city reached a long-awaited deal to start loosening restrictions around the training process, but these changes will only take effect starting next year.

In the meantime, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that 37 pools in underserved communities across the state will now be getting $150 million dollars to be renovated or constructed.

It’s part of a statewide initiative to teach children how to swim and improve pool infrastructure.

Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue joined political anchor Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” Thursday night to discuss the lifeguard shortage, new funding for pools and more.

“Part of the contract negotiation, what was important was this contract had not been updated in 40 years and we needed to modernize it,” Donoghue said. “Some of the changes we’ve made have been really important whether it be changing the swim time requirement for our pools, eliminating that — making it shorter so we can ensure we have better ability for young people to be able to pass that test, inserting a management structure so that we can have more control.”