By Correspondent in Lagos
As a away of safe guarding against boat mishap, the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) has trained 105 boat and ferry captains as well as Deckhands on safe navigation on the waterways, its General manager,mishap had Oluwadamilola Emmanuel said.
He stated this at thehe one-day training which had a theme:” Boat/Ferry Captains and Deckhand Proficiency Upgrade For Non-Conventional Craft”,held for boat and ferry operators in collaboration with Simptop Ventures in Lagos on Sunday.
The LASWA chief executive explained that the state governor had approved continuous training for for waterways stakeholders and captains, after an event held in October, 2020
He said: “Mr Governor has informed us to organise training for the boat and ferry captains,in the process of licensing them, to enable them be aware of safety measures on our waterways.
“The training will guide the operators on safety procedures as regards Inland waterways operation.
“The training will also sensitise the operators while the enforcement will be in collaboration with marine police and our monitoring teams, to ensure they operate within the rules and regulations of the Inland waterways authority,” Emmanuel said.
He added that the state government was building the state’s first Jetty terminal,to be completed in 2021, adding that the authority would not relent efforts to ensure continuous channelisation and removal of water hyacinth.
The Head of Vessel Inspection Unit of the authority, Mr Sunday Ukeme, engaged the participants on rules of the waterways, navigation and safety on sea, in addition to sensitising the boat operators on the importance of navigational buoys on the waterways.
“Often times, the local boat operators remove the navigational buoys from the water and take them home not knowing that the buoy shows them the right channels to follow to prevent accidents”, Ukeme said.
A Medical doctor with the Lagos State General Hospital, Badagry, Dr Kazeem Lawal, also engaged the participants on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), a life safety technique for accident victims.
Lawal explained that CPR was an emergency procedure that combined chest compressions, often with artificial ventilation,to preserve intact brain function until further measures were taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person who had had cardiac arrest.
The Higher Fire Superintendent, from Lagos State Fire Service, Gospel Akaehrmen, urged the ferry operators to always be conscious of the environment, adding that safety was everyone’s responsibility.
Akaehrmen cautioned ferry operators against unsafe acts and advised them to purchase fire extinguishers and learn how to operate them to reduce loss of lives and property in the event of fire.
Daniel Erinfolami, a boat captain, commended the efforts of the state government and the management of LASWA for exposing them to safety procedures and changing their attitude positively towardsl water transportation.
Erinfolami said he used to think that the buoys posed danger to the boats not knowing that they were meant to provide direction for easy navigation.
Another boat captain, Eniola Ayerin, said he now understood the importance of always allowing right of way and slowing down for one another to avoid boat mishap.
Ayerin said that captains usually face such challenges at night when the fishermen hanged their net on the road and the boat’s lighting was not bright enough to clearly indicate the situation, thereby causing accident.
