LAGOS BOAT ACCIDENTS AND UNSAFE WATERWAYS.

After two passenger boats sank within three weeks, we are likely heading to the wrong reaction if we may just ban water transportation! The stand of most commentators on the matter points to this direction. It is like recommending decapitation as cure for headaches.

Cities like Lagos can benefit a lot from the waters around them. What would Venice or Amsterdam be without their waters? They have put them to good uses, creating efficiencies in transportation and living with their waters.

Boat tragedies are no excuses for banning water transportation. They are rather challenges to regulatory standards that guide the uses of our waters.  We have to use our waters more; we have to work on regulations and implementation standards that would ensure safety.

We are definitely far from the standards. Over-loaded boats mostly head to capsizing. When the use of life jackets is observed in breach, we should not be shocked that people die from the disasters. If not for providence, more people would have died. We cannot depend too much on providence because its vagaries are unknown.

Just as Lagos has attempted to regulate road transportation, it should apply appropriate standards for water transportation, with sanctions for abuses. The standards should apply in other parts of the country that use water transportation. We have witnessed similar disasters in those places, again blamed on over loading, and inadequate life jackets.

The latest boat disaster in Lagos in which eight lives were lost raised another issue that we have been highlighting for years without governments paying any attention: unsafe waterways. According to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, “The boat capsized after hitting a rock”.  Our  waters are unmapped, or where they are, boat operators do not have the information that could abort disasters.

Debris from abandoned ships, rocks and other impediments litter our waters. The authorities do not consider them enough dangers to remove  or advise boat operators on the parts that are safe for navigation.

Efforts at promoting water transportation are bound to retard with disasters, particularly if they become serial. On the other hand, governments can see the disasters as challenges that call attention to the poor standards of transportation, which are not peculiar to water, and tackle them.

Once governments focus on the importance of water, beyond rhetoric, they would shift their investments to safety standards and guaranteeing that Nigerians can use their waters for various purposes that can enhance their social and economic well-being.

The waters are asking to be used, but we should not be carried away be Fela’s song, Water E No Get Enemy. We make enemies of our waterways through poor safety standards.

Vanguard