The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has lamented that 75% of the boats operating on Lagos waterways are not seaworthy.
The agency made this known following recent boat mishaps on the state waterways, which have resulted in the deaths of some persons.
NIWA’s Lagos Area Manager, Sarat Braimah speaking with newsmen on Wednesday, said that the boat accidents were mainly human errors, from boat operators to captains, jetty owners, and passengers.
Her words: “What NIWA wants to do now is to sanitize those boat operators. We cannot wait until accidents happen again. From the two major accidents that happened this year, we have been able to analyse our investigations, and we discovered that it was due to human errors. What I mean by human errors is down to the maintenance of the boats.”
“Most times, boat engines will go off mid-stream because of the speed the boat captains need. They won’t get it on the channel. So, they will move out of the channel to go to the shallow area so that they can maintain speed.”
She also noted that, with the majority of the boats not in good condition, there’s a high chance of developing a fault in the middle of the waterways while ferrying passengers. She, however, added that the agency had put in some conditions for boat operators to meet or forget about the ferry business.
Opeoluwa Michael-Ayobami
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