The Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) said on Monday that it had started inspecting boats and ascertaining the state of life jackets in all jetties and terminals in Lagos State, as part of efforts to enhance safety in the festive season.
The General Manager of LASWA, Mr Oluwadamilola Emmanuel, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the inspection was to guarantee safety of passengers during and after the Yuletide.
Emmanuel said that the authority knew that boating and fun-seeking activities on waterways would increase during the season, hence the need for inspection of boats and life jackets.
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“There is the need to step up safety procedure on waterways in line with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s commitment toward development of water transportation.
“LASWA as an organisation is constantly engaging and sensitising the waterways stakeholders, most especially on adherence to safety standards on our waterways.
“Currently, we are carrying out boat inspection and life jackets buoyancy test across all jetties and terminals in Lagos State to guarantee safety of passengers during and after the Yuletide,” he said.
The LASWA boss said that the authority had mobilised and deployed a good number of water guards to ensure strict adherence to safety rules and regulations before, during and after the Yuletide across jetties.
“We have our water guards on standby in all our jetties monitoring passengers and boat movement while enforcing safety regulations.
“We are doubling our efforts at improving waterways safety through regular patrol of the waterways, while collaborating with other relevant agencies of government to achieve our goal,” he said.
According to him, inspection of boats is carried out bi-annually on waterways to see whether they are worthy to operate.
“We carry out checks on them to see whether there are safety issues that should be addressed.
“We give boat operators a timeline to fix whatever issues observed and detected in each boat during inspection.
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“If operators fail to fix whatever safety lapses on their boats, we will go after them,” Emmanuel said.
He said that the authority was working hard to prevent avoidable water mishaps.
The general manager urged commuters on waterways to speak out whenever they observed any compromise of safety by boat operators during voyage. (NAN)
