National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) says it is moving towards phasing out wooden boats on inland waterways.
The Managing Director of NIWA, Bola Oyebamiji, announced this to editors in Lagos during a weekend interaction focused on the safety of the waterways and the expansion of water transportation.
The Managing Director of NIWA noted that wooden boats constituted more than 90 per cent of all waterway vessels during the interaction.
Oyebamiji said they also accounted for the majority of accidents on the waterways nationwide. He said this was because they had no regard for operational rules, which included not travelling at night, overloading and failure to use life jackets by the operators and the passengers.
On how to resolve the issue in the short term, Oyebamiji said NIWA had deliberately increased the number of its Marshals at jetties from 80 to 350 to cover the entire country.
He also revealed that the agency has embarked on a rigorous campaign at the jetties and via the media. This campaign focused on educating the boat operators and the passengers on the dangers of night travel, overloading, and failing to use life jackets, among other safety issues.
However, he noted that the long-term goal is to phase out wooden boats from operation.
In this wise, Oyebamiji said the agency was negotiating with the Presidency and Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, headed by Minister Adegboyega Oyetola, to replace wooden boats nationwide.
He also said that NIWA will deploy more patrol boats to monitor operators in line with the NIWA Code, adding that the Nigerian Navy was also assisting in this regard for the time being. “We will continue to push by applying education, enlightenment, and sanction [as needed] until we have zero fatalities on our waterways.
