Objectives To investigate the health status of swimming pools in Ningxia, by analyzing the influential factors, and searching for the weakness of supervision and management, in order to provide scientific bases for taking targeted measures.

Methods Supervising and inspecting the status of health management of all swimming places in Ningxia in 2009-2011. Water samples from swimming pools and foot-leaching pools were collected by random. Total bacterial count, coli group, carbamide, turbidity and residual chlorine were tested.

Results A total of 236 water samples were collected from 64 swimming places in 2009-2011, including 183 water samples from swimming pools and 53 water samples from foot-leaching pools. The health management of 33 swimming places was qualified with a total qualified rate of 51.6% and the quality of water was acceptable in 26 swimming places with a total qualified rate of 40.6%. The qualified rate of turbidity was 100% and the qualified rate of residual chlorine was 69.95%. The qualified rate of water samples from 53 foot-leaching pools was 67.92% in these three years. The qualified rate of test criteria of all swimming places in these three years was 27.8%, 41.7% and 50.0%, respectively.

Conclusions The health management and water quality of swimming places in 2009-2011 were not optimistic in Ningxia. Some problems were still remained, and supervision and management must be strengthened