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•Decry 3,123 lives lost in last 10 years
From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
The Marine Crafts Builders Association of Nigeria (MCBAN) has called for government’s partnership to enforce operational compliance by boat drivers to avert incessant mishap.
MCBAN has also lamented that in the last 10 years, 3,123 lives have been lost in boat mishaps, thereby calling for urgent intervention to forestall future occurrences.
The Director General of MCBAN, Mr. Clem Ifezue, who alongside other officers briefed journalists in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday,
frowned at some boat drivers, who recklessly ignore operational guidelines.
Ifezue expressed: “The news about accident on water is getting too frequent. The last that happened on Niger and Nasarawa States,drew attention of everybody, even Mr. President, who has asked for a probe on the accident.
“It might interest you to note that in last the 10 years, accident recorded on our waterways were 3,123 lives lost due to the accident on water ways. It is enough to wake everybody up. We are the marine craft builders. Those accidents involved our products. So, we are more concerned than every other person.”
The marine craft builders extended their condolences to the families that lost their lives in the incidents, regretting that most of accidents were avoidable if the right things were done.
Ifezue noted things that could cause boat to capsize, which included overloading, ignoring safety measures, night travelling and lack of maintenance of these crafts.
He said: “So, there are a whole lot that can cause these, even the boat drivers themselves in boat handling. Again, people don’t listen and adhere strictly to recommended engine to be on the boat. These engines are heavy and they command speed. So, if you put a big engine on a small boat and it blades, the speed is enough to capsize the boat. So, there are a whole lot of them.
“How do we curtail this? The tag will tell you the model of the boat; the tag will tell you about the weight of the boat, the tag will tell you the sitting capacity of the boat, the tag will tell you the recommended engines to be installed on that boat.
“And I tell you, if the other agencies of government that have the enforcement rights to look at those things to stop boat on the water; count the number of passengers; look at that information. If the information says 20 passenger-boat, and there are 30 (passengers) of them, please, park them; that is accident waiting to happen.
“So, we need to work closely with government enforcers, in this case, NIWA (National Inland Waterways Authority), Police Marine. They are the ones that will stop boat on water, check few things and ask you ( driver) to go.
“In addition to looking at, are you wearing life-jacket? Are you sitting properly? Please, check the information tag and relate it to what you have on the boat. All these will save a lot of people.
“Our waterways need to be channelized; put signs where you have sharp bends; put signs where you are going to open waters; put signs where you are going to reduce your speed. And some of these drivers know, that when a bigger boat is passing, it slows down to that it doesn’t make passengers in the smaller boat to suffer. These are the ethics, the tradition on the waterways. The drivers know all these. But, some of them are still very reckless.”
Ifezue added that with the cooperation of federal government agencies on maritime sector, boat drivers found not adhering to operational guidelines should be arrested and prosecuted.
He said: “So, those reckless drivers are going to be followed up and penalized. Accident on the water is one of the worst to happen.
“And again, our members have the culture of interacting with users of these boats. Unfortunately, people that are making these purchases are usually not the end users. Some are contractors; some are suppliers. They are not the end users. So, your discussion with them will bring out little or nothing.
“There are boats you don’t use in some areas. There boats you use in some areas. There are shallow and deep waters. There are view hauls; there are flat bottom hauls. Flat bottom hauls you use in shallow waters. You don’t use the boat meant for a specific water on another water. These are the things that will cause accident on water. And we are doing our best to tell members as much as we can, to interview people coming to buy boats to get all this information so that you know what to give the person (buyer).
“However, we are going to work closely with government agencies with the responsibilities for enforcing some of these things (ethics) on our waterways.”
Ends.
