Need for safe and secured water transportation in Nigeria

Nigeria has 853 km long of coastline which runs through seven littoral southern states of Lagos, Ondo, Delta, Balyesa, Rivers, Cross Rivers and Akwa Ibom bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

Edo and Ogun states, with their natural attributes of coastal states also contribute to the massive and expansive shoreline of the country.

With these impressive natural coastal attributes, Nigeria should boast of one of the best developed water transportation systems in the world.

Its massive coastline should have placed the country in good stead to exploit and explore these natural attributes to develop modern water transportation system that would be a viable alternative to the chaotic and over-used road transport.

nigeriamaritime360.com unfortunately, notes that this aspect of mode of transportation is the least developed in the country.

What makes it more pathetic is the fact that the other modes of transportation of road and rail suffer the same fate as the water transportation, thus making Nigeria’s transportation system one of the least attractive in the world.

Our roads, which are mostly dilapidated due to long years of neglect, have become a theatre of human carnage as a result of pressure of over-use.

Our rail system can best be described as a study in pre-historic archival monument as most of its infrastructure such as rail tracks, coaches and locomotives are only fit for the museum.

However, this platform recognises government efforts to sanitise the road and rail transportation system through deliberate policy to rid them of their inherent decadence.

We are nevertheless saddened by the fact that the same zeal by government to revamp both the rail and road transport system is not applicable to water transportation.

This platform is not satisfied with the level of government interest and enthusiasm to developing and modernising the water transportation.

Just like other concerned stakeholders, we believe that a modern, robust , safe and secured water transportation is a credible alternative to road transport, which to us, is over-stretched .

A well-developed water transportation system will not only reduce the pressure on our roads, but also lead to a drastic reduction of road carnage.

We regard the present efforts of government in developing and providing safe and secured water transportation in the country through its agency, National Inland Waterways Authority(NIWA) as not only half-hearted but pretentious.

The performance of the agency in this critical sector of transportation falls short of the global standard and best practices.

Despite its claims to supervision and regulation of the sector, water transportation in the country has not appreciated beyond the primitive era, a development which has discouraged massive private investments in the sector.

However, this platform acknowledges and lauds the efforts of the Lagos State government to set a standard in water transportation system in the country.

Through the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), the state government has paid more than a passing interest in water transportation in the state.

The state, buoyed by the need to decongest the ever busy Lagos roads with the attendant gruelling traffic gridlock that has defiled all known solutions, has marshalled out a plan to make water transport an attractive alternative to the chaotic road transport.

Through its master plan to develop and attract investors to the sector, the state is currently constructing nine jetties with shelters and shoreline protection and channelization of four new ferry routes to boost water transportation in the state.

This is one out of the many littoral states with natural coastal attributes that sure knows how to leverage on these God-given resources to boost movement of people.

We encourage others states with similar attributes in the southern Nigeria to take a cue from Lagos State to develop and deploy their natural coastal opportunities as attractive alternative to road transport.

We also urge the federal government to borrow a leaf from Lagos State and stop the unnecessary bickering with the state through its agency, NIWA.

This platform is particularly disturbed by the legal tussle between the federal government and Lagos State through their agencies, NIWA and LASWA over the control of water ways in Lagos.

Even though the new management of NIWA led by Senator Mamora Olurunnimbe has hinted about the possibility of settling the matter which has dragged to the Supreme Court, out of court, we believe that the time and resources which NIWA dissipated on this needless show of federal might could have been properly channelled towards improving and securing water transportation in other parts of the country, while leaving the Lagos State undistracted in its noble cause of revolutionising the water transportation in the state.

This platform therefore wishes to encourage the federal government to copy, improve and replicate the Lagos state template in water transportation in other parts of the country.

The present state of the sector in the country leaves much to be desired as our waterways are still under developed and unsafe to navigate.

This explains the high incident of mishaps on our waterways due to government neglect of strict monitoring and enforcement of safety standards.

Our waterways are still littered with ship wrecks, water weeds, lack of channels markings, dilapidated jetties, old and rickety boats and ferries and ill-equipped marine police.
This failure has resulted to loss of several lives and has also scared away prospective patronage.

The stark reality of this negligence was sharply brought home when in an ironic twist of fate, Senator Olurunnimbe Mamora, the helmsman of NIWA, a body statutorily charged to see to the safety and secured navigation on the waterways, was a victim of this neglect.

He and his entourage who were recently on the facility tour of the facilities in the Lagos area office had the boat he was travelling on hit an abandoned wreck hidden in the belly of waters.

It was a close encounter with death!

This incident therefore brings to the fore the urgent need by government to do more than what it is presently doing in the water transportation sector not only to make our waters ways safe and secured but an alternative means of transportation.

Apart from the littoral states in the south, there are some river channels in the North where water transportation thrives.

We note with concerns that the incident of mishaps on water ways in that region is even higher than what obtains in the south due to the parlous state of infrastructure in water transport sector in the area.

The high mortality rate in water transportation in the region is mostly caused by over-crowding and over-loading of their rickety boats and ferries, poor channelization of water ways, night navigation, lack of life jackets and other gross disobedience of safety standards which expose the negligence of relevant authorities in enforcing safety rules.

This platform therefore advocates for total revamp of water transportation system in the country by engaging in strict monitoring and enforcement of safety standards.

The water ways should be cleared of all impediments against safe navigation while operators should be encouraged to embrace safety standards in their operations.

Government should empower and equip marine police to provide necessary patrol and protection of the waterways against criminal elements.

We believe that if government pursues this reformation agenda in water transportation system with genuine zeal and will power, more Nigerians will embrace this means of transportation and take the stress and chaos off our over-burdened road.

The commendable efforts of government in the rail sector will complement what we are advocating in the water transport sector to achieve this desirable goal.