Harboursandport. com: Lagos--- The Nigerian Hydrographic Society (NHS) has solicited the support of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA in order to achieve its proposed professional training programmes for hydrographers.
Disclosing this in Lagos, Mr. Olumide Omotoso, the Hydrographer General of the Nigerian Ports Authority, and Chairman of the Nigerian Hydrographic Society, Lagos/South West Zone, stated that NHS has designed a curriculum in hydrography to expand the scope of training which would takeoff under the Institute of Maritime Studies at the University of Lagos.
Omotoso also mentioned that the professional training initiative would not just benefit Nigerian alone but also benefit Africa as a whole thereby creating an avenue for professional hydrographers to render their services.
According to him, “We have been able to design a curriculum that is coming in the University of Lagos under the Institute of Maritime Studies. The programme in hydrography should be something that is sustainable, feeding African countries because as we speak today, there is no civil hydrographic programme in capacity building area in Africa”.
“Now, we just need sponsorship. The programme itself is syndicating with the office of the Surveyor General, the NPA, NIMASA and all the stakeholders in the maritime sector. So, what we are waiting for is the takeoff” Omotoso added.
Speaking further, Omotoso noted that the forth coming zonal hydro summit is scheduled for November 23, at the Seaview Properties Limited building on Marina.
He said that NHS has informed the International Hydrographic Organisation, IHO that has accepted that they go ahead and create this programme.
Also, NHS has been able to scheme the programme and it is ready in paper. “We are hoping the NPA, NIMASA will buy into it so that it can be sustainable, and we can begin to train hydrographic professionals, an idea that the NPA Managing Director supports.” Olumide stated.
The NPA Hydrographer General, however, frowned at the non-existence of a hydrographic policy, which he said should give priority to charting the Nigerian waters.
He said “We need national hydrographic policies that give priority to charting our waters and updating it by ourselves, but it has to be a national programme. As I speak to you, the limitation in the national maritime policy is what dovetails into the national hydrographic policy”.
Omotoso also disclosed that the NPA would be presenting a paper on its activities in terms of hydrographic works on the 2018 IALA Summit scheduled to hold in Turkey, which he described as the backbone of marine aids to navigation.
“The International Association of Lighthouse Authorities, IALA, in charge of marine navigational aids globally, is coming to Nigeria very soon, to come and check the integrity of all navigational aids in our waters, so the world will know if we are compliant or not. And we are working with all the stakeholders to take IALA round all our waters to see what we have been doing,” he added.
Olumide Omotoso also noted that the NPA has continually ensured to keep wrecks off the busy channels and have information up-to-date as submitted to the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, which is the authority in charge of the region including Nigeria.
“I can tell you that the information that we have concerning the busy channels as at today, which can be confirmed globally, is that, our charts, our surveys, hydrographic surveys, are being rendered to the charting authority over Nigeria, which is the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, who produces the international Admiralty Charts covering the region that is under their purview. Our routine wreck surveys ensure adequate monitoring of wreck drifts” he concluded.
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