The death on Tuesday of dozens of villagers following a boat mishap in Bagwai local government area of Kano State should be another wake-up call regarding safety on our waterways. The boat, conveying 47 passengers, including school pupils, capsized with 29 persons reported dead while 13 others are yet to be accounted for. The school pupils were said to be on their way to participate in the Maulud celebration marking the birth of Prophet Mohammed. Only seven persons were reportedly rescued while the remains of those that died had been deposited in a hospital. While we commiserate with the families of the deceased, we urge the Kano authorities to pay more attention to the plight of the affected communities.

While many Nigerians may not be paying attention, hardly a week passes without reports of a boat accident and often with heavy casualty figures as people tend to pile into whatever watercraft happens to be going towards the direction they are headed. This often necessitates overcrowding as very small wooden canoes carry passengers far beyond their capacity. Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, who has set up a panel to investigate the cause of the Kano tragedy, confirmed that the boat “was ferrying about 50 people with some loads, which capsized because of overload.”

In Nigeria today, there is hardly any ferry, canoe or the so-called ‘flying boat’ that keeps to the exact passenger specification. In some instances, boats that were constructed to carry not more than 20 persons could be loaded with 50 or more passengers especially at peak periods when people are in a hurry to get back to their destinations. Consequently, when the canoe encounters stormy conditions along the water, the sheer weight of the human cargo and other luggage would make it easily susceptible to capsize. Furthermore, the fact that there are no lifejackets on board is a sure guarantee that casualty figure is bound to be high.

Aside from overloading, another cause of these marine accidents is the fact that most of the boats are old and suffer from lack of proper maintenance. Perhaps more important is the obvious absence of enforcement of safety standards since not much is known about the existence of any mandatory operational guidelines for ownership of ferries and boats.

As we have repeatedly highlighted, water transportation could indeed be a source of decongesting the roads in Nigeria. However, there is an urgent need for the enforcement of operational standards for all ferry and canoe operators across the country’s waterways. There should also be regular inspection of these boats just like motor vehicles are inspected to detect dilapidated and rickety boats which constitute serious hazard to human lives. Provision of emergency services along the waterways is also worthy of consideration. The absence of such emergency agencies often contributes to the high casualty figures recorded when boat accidents occur.

It is even more disturbing that we have marine police in the country who always seem to be nowhere to be found in environs where water tragedies occur. If they are marine police, shouldn’t they be permanently stationed around waterways and swiftly swing to action when accidents occur by promptly rescuing victims? Besides, the essence of Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) is hardly felt. Halting the constant and needless waste of human lives on our waterways will entail putting in place adequate safety measures. The time for that is now!

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