Safety Culture First: Operators Urge Regulators To Enforce Lifejackets, Clear Waterways

Lagos State Chapter Chairman of Association of Tourist Boat Operators and Water Transporters of Nigeria (ATBOWATAN), Saheed Lawal, in this chat with SAMUEL BENJAMIN, spoke on the frequent boat mishaps and how to halt it.

 What do you think is responsible for the frequent boat mishap on waterways? 

Government has been trying its possible best to make sure water transport is effective and safe for more people to commute via waterways and thereby decongest the roads.

However, it is important that the operators get government’s support because we cannot do it alone, especially in preventing accidents on waterways. We thank God that in Lagos State the numbers of accidents have been reducing and we pray to Almighty God that we get to zero accident ratio on our waterways, both in Lagos and throughout Nigeria.

Nonetheless, my advice to operators is that they need to develop safety culture by being careful whenever they are riding on water aside promoting safety measures. When passengers are boarding, operators should not allow any passengers to go into the boat without putting on a lifejacket. Once they are moving close to the jetty, and before they enter the boat they must surely put on the lifejacket. The lifejacket is not meant for fancy it is to protect and safe lives, we do not pray for an accident, but if an accident happens, before the rescuer will come, the lifejacket will help the passenger to stay float on water for easy rescue operation.

It is also important that passengers put on the lifejacket properly. This is because a lifejacket can be compared with a necklace, if it is not hook well when put on, no matter how expensive the necklace might be, it will get lost. It is the same thing with lifejacket, when boat operator give a passenger a lifejacket, the passenger should take time to wear it properly, buckle it at the appropriate places, because it is meant to safe lives, it is not meant for fancy. And immediately passengers get to their destination, they can lose it, and hand it over to the boat man.

For now, the government should enforce no night operation because it is not easy to see what is under the water. And this is because there are a lot of wrecks under our waters. We have reported to the government to come to our aids in removing these wreckages, but not much is being done in that area.

Also, the government needs to clear the waterways of water hyacinth. If the boat engine carries water hyacinth or dirt, it can lead to an accident because once water hyacinth or garbage hooks the boat engine, it will cause the engine to overheat, and once there is overheating, many components of the engine will get damaged or stop functioning properly and the boat engine powering the boat movement will stop working.  So cleaning and clearing of our waterways of any debris is very much important.

You talked about the number of accidents in Lagos has reduced, what do you think is responsible for this?

This is because we follow the rules and regulation, as the association compels its members to ensure the passengers to obey the rules. The association informs their members to tell passengers to put on the lifejacket, so that even if there is an accident, everybody will float on the water before the rescuer will now come to their aid.

So that is why we don’t have many accidents on the waterways in Lagos compared with other states. So other states should emulate the way we have been operating in Lagos.

Do you think the regulators are doing enough and are they actually helping the operators?

They are doing their best but there should be river marshals posted to every jetty, so that they make sure before a passenger goes into the boat, they will check all the necessary things and ensure compliance with all safety measures by passengers and boat operators. And even in an area where the river marshals are not available, they make sure they adequately sensitize the people within the community including their leaders on the importance of putting on lifejacket while on water.

The government should provide navigators on waterways, so that when boat operators are moving on water, they can be sure, especially those who are not familiar with the route that they are on the safer side. And in mounting the navigators, it should be done in conjunction with the local operators within the communities, because some of them know the terrain as they know the exact areas where all the issues are. Whenever they want to do it, they should carry the operators along.