Getting serious about waterways safety

There has precocious been an up-tick successful activities geared towards ensuring information connected our waterways. At the onset of this year’s rainy and flood season, the usually dormant National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, roused itself and collaborated with the Lagos State Waterways Authority, LASWA, to behaviour a information run aimed astatine “promoting champion practices” connected our waterways.

At that juncture with the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola successful attendance, NIWA gave distant 3,500 beingness jackets to waterways users successful Lagos. NIWA has continued its sensitisation run to summation information consciousness and compliance among waterways operators and users.

We are delighted that our long-standing advocacy for authorities agencies to get much superior astir the information of our waterways is eliciting enactment from immoderate organs of the national and immoderate authorities governments.

The International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, successful a merchandise published connected October 21, 2023, reported that betwixt January 2018 and October 2023, vessel mishaps claimed mean of 17 persons per month. It listed deaths from the apical 10 astir accident-prone states as: Niger – 275; Kebbi – 144; Kwara – 125; Sokoto – 117; Lagos – 92; Anambra – 80; Bauchi – 76; Kano – 45; Bayelsa – 40 and Benue – 34.

Most of these accidents and their attendant fatalities could person been prevented oregon minimised if Nigeria had the close regulatory situation astir maritime transport. The maritime assemblage is the slightest governed among the 3 main modes of proscription – air, roadworthy and h2o successful Nigeria.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, is firmly successful power of aerial transport safety, which is wherefore Nigeria aerial transport strategy is considered among the safest successful the world. The Police, Federal Roads Safety Corps, FRSC, and the myriads of akin agencies astatine the authorities level bash their spot to instrumentality roadworthy information procedures. The aforesaid cannot beryllium said for the waterway regulators, NIWA and akin agencies.

It is arsenic if our governments are not funny successful that assemblage due to the fact that they are hardly patronised by the elite. The canoes are ramshackle and prone to predominant breakdowns, the operators cognize small oregon thing astir modular information imperatives. Canoes are often overloaded with small respect for the usage of beingness jackets. When accidents happen, that is erstwhile authorities officials aboveground due to the fact that of media attention. This indispensable stop.

Our waterways indispensable halt being relegated to the presumption of ungoverned spaces. There are communities successful Nigeria which person nary different ways of coming and going but with canoes. Because of authorities neglect, they are forced to navigate based connected outdated and accident-prone accepted systems.

We telephone connected Oyetola, being the pioneer Marine and Blue Economy minister, to spell beyond nationalist shows and pb the effort to modernise and unafraid waterways proscription successful Nigeria. Life jackets indispensable beryllium made compulsory, particularly for mothers and their babies.

There should beryllium zero tolerance for non-compliance.

The station Getting superior astir waterways safety appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.