The National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, has said that passengers
are scared of traveling by water because they are not sure of the condition of
the boats and ferries plying the nation's waterways.
Disclosing this in Lagos at a meeting with operators in the water
transportation business in its office in Lagos, Muazu Sanbo, the Lagos Area
Manager of NIWA, said that the Authority will soon put in place measures to
ensure that all safety requirements are met by operators in the sector.
Among the measures to be put in place are compulsory operators'
permits, survey certificate of all water craft to ply the waterways, use of
manifest by all operators and compulsory certificate of competence for all
captains driving water craft on the waterways. Sambo said all operators must
obtain their permits, survey certificates as well as stickers in the next three
months or face sanction which may include stopping such offending firm from
operating.
He also noted that the Authority has printed manifest which were shared
to the operators to use before every firm would start printing for themselves.
The Area Manager pointed out that NIWA decision to print the manifest is to
ensure that there is uniformity in the document used by all operators. He also
said that the advantage of operators insisting on passengers writing their
names on the manifest is that it comes handy for insurance claims in case of
accident, as well as serving as a source of information on all the passengers
on a particular trip.
On the drivers' permit to be gotten from the Nigerian Maritime
Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Sambo said that all boat operators
are expected to get theirs before the end of the year.
The NIWA boss also disclosed that they have established a safety
compliance team that will be paying unscheduled visits to all the jetties to
ensure that they are observing all the laws governing water transportation.
The time frame for the implementation of the measures to be enforced by
the Authority, were agreed upon by both management staff of the NIWA Area
office and representatives of the various firms operating in the sector in the
Lagos area.
According to him, "We are worried about boat mishap on our
waterways and our responsibility is to find out the human causes and ensure
that it does not happen again. When this is done and it still happens, then it
is an act of God.
"We are worried and we know that you are worried too."
He stressed the need for partnership to ensure that the incessant boat
mishap is curbed or reduced to the barest minimum, he concluded.
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