Regulator to enforce life insurance on boat operations in Lagos
- as LASWA initiates new safety measures
Operators of commercial boats in Lagos State, Nigeria’s economic hub, will have to mandatory take insurance policy for passengers on board their vessels.
Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), industry regulator, says modalities to actualise this new measure are being discussed with various stakeholders and would be unveiled to the public once perfected.
The move forms part of the drastic measures LASWA is taking not only to compensate victims of boat mishaps, but also encourage investment in the waterways and increased passenger patronage. There are over 20 commercially viable navigational water routes in Lagos, with 17 of out of the 20 local government areas in the state accessible by water.
But the growth of water transportation in the coastal state, over the years, had been abysmally slow due to what observers blame on lack of regulation, which leaves passengers at the mercy of operators. Until 2008, there was no known regulator of water transportation in Lagos, as the National Inland Waterways (NIWA) concentrated more on national than on the Lagos lagoons.
Close to 20 lives had been lost in the last nine months to boat mishaps in Lagos, with most of the accidents recorded in Ikorodu, Epe and Badagry areas of the state. The last major tragedy, which occurred January 30, 2016, in Badore area of the state, claimed seven lives.
Abisola Kamson, managing director of LASWA, in an interview with BusinessDay, said the agency was not only introducing new measures to check accidents, but was also stepping up enforcement of safety guidelines on the waterways.
“We are going to ensure that vessels have comprehensive insurance as a key requirement for operation. We’re stepping up public enlightenment on this,” she said, adding “in the new dispensation, boat operators would be expected to visibly display their names on the vessels to help people clearly identify with the operators and be able to make complains should any problems arise.
“We have been going around educating people on the lifejackets; we show them what a quality lifejacket looks like and we also teach them how to use them. A lifejacket must have a bright colour like red, which helps the passenger get identified in the case of an accident.”
Kamson, who disclosed state was looking to freeing the routes of their encumbrances, said the plan was make water transportation as dominant as road and other forms of transportation by integrating it with the rail and road in the future. “The idea is that when you leave any of the major jetties you can take bus or any other available means and continue your journey,” said Kamson.
She added: “The key thing we are doing is to standardise the sector first and provide the infrastructure. We need to, for instance, establish the standard for the type of vessels that should be used for commercial purposes. The challenge is that, at the moment we have some people use vessels built for private uses and that is not safe. We have to set the criteria for the kind of vessels and its capacity.
“Some operators have vessel with the engine capacity larger than the vessel. That is dangerous and would no longer be accepted. Also, we need to enforce the speed limits. The same way you have speed limits on the road is the same way we should have speed limits for water transportation.”
Speed limits would be checked through speedometers in collaboration with the Marine Police, she said.