NIWA Inaugurates Waterways Task Force For Passengers’ Safety

Harboursandport.com: Lagos - The National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA has inaugurated a multi-sector task force to enforce safety measures on the nation’s waters.

The Managing Director of NIWA, George Moghalu who inaugurated the task force in Lagos, said that safety on the nation’s waterways is a priority of his management.

Moghalu charged the newly inaugurated task force to ensure enforcement of all the safety measures in both jetties owned NIWA and others. He said the task force comprises officials of NIWA, Lagos State Waterways Authority, LASWA, water transport branch of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, and the National Drug Law Enforcement Authority, NDLEA.

According to him, “Let me commend our partners in this event, Maritime workers union of Nigeria, MWUN, Lagos State Waterways Authority, LASWA, and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA. I want to sincerely appreciate these organizations. NIWA is coordinating this particular activity because of the emphasis we place on security and emergency response.

“As I speak to you, we have procured quite a number of facilities. We have procured about 20 patrol boats and we have given them to all our area offices. We have given three to the Lagos area already because we want to lay great emphasis on the issue of security.

“We have also procured two ambulances already and the procurement processes are ongoing. We are going to bring one to Lagos from the ones that are already delivered. We are doing this because the people that die in any of these accidents are our relations, friends, fathers, sisters, and Nigerians most importantly are human beings.

“One thing that is very clear from my experience is that our people are bad at obeying protocols. We have placed an embargo on vessels moving after 6:30pm and before 6am every day because we have noticed that 90 per cent of these accidents that occur either occur at night or very early hours of the morning and the reason is very simple, these vessels do not have night navigational aids and if they do not have night navigational aids, they are not supposed to operate, but unfortunately, these vessels insist on operating.

“People will insist on entering boats without life jackets. We kept it that way for many of our NIWA control agents, but we find out that they get a boat and put it at the waterside, and then there is the aspect of overloading.

“Some accidents have been caused by overloading vessels that are designed to carry 20, you will see them carrying about 40, apart from cargo that they carry.

“This task force will enforce all the protocols. So long as you are going to operate on the inland waterways of this country, this task force will enforce all the protocols. We have our mandate to stop and seize where necessary any vessel that is infringing any of these protocols and we emphasize the fact that we are not going to take it. Let me assure you members of the task force that you have our support. We will give you all the required support needed,” he said.