Environmentalist Blames Govt Over Boat Mishap In Rivers
Edith CHUKU
The Executive Director of Youth and Environmental Advocacy Centre YAEC, Mr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, has blamed the incessant boat mishaps in Rivers State on government negligence.
He stated this in an interview with TNN, where he expressed dismay over the recent Bonny boat mishap that led to the death of three persons while 19 others were rescued.
Fynface appealed to governor Siminalayi Fubara, to give attention to the maritime sector by ensuring that adequate safety measures are put in place to avert loss of lives and destruction of property.
He recalled that around this time last year, eleven persons lost their lives in Bonny boat mishap, urging the governor to establish a task force that will properly inspect every boat before takeoff.
The activist also wants the state government to, “provide boat that are good. In other times you have government providing boat, everyone is surprised, I am also surprise that we are in Rivers State, surrounded by river but River State is not in the transportation sector in the maritime industry.
“They should try and provide boats and ensure the boats are in good condition. The same way they buy vehicles and support road transportation, the same way they should buy boat and support water transportation, so that people can be safe on the water ways, these deaths of people as a result of the recklessness of this water transportation drivers will no longer occur as frequent as we are seeing.”
Fyneface explained that the taskforce, when set up would also ensure that, “every passenger adheres to the usage of life jacket, no life jacket, no boat entering.
“The boats must be inspected to ensure the fiber is still strong enough, that the boat, fiber is water worthy for people to travel with. They should inspect the engine to ensure that it’s in good condition and then they also carry out alcohol test on every boat driver to be sure they have not taken drinks, they are not drunk before they go on the river. Also, they should check their health, temperature to be sure they are in good condition.”
He lamented that, “it is terrible for people to lose their lives while traveling by boat in a state where we have resources and we have measures to put in place to ensure that we minimize some of this.”
The environmentalist added that, “why some passengers refuse to use life jacket is because the life jackets are so old, dirty, irritating that they are now death jacket not life jacket anymore. Government should ensure the provision of life jacket and then there should be regulations, any passenger who said he or she doesn’t want to use life jacket, the person should be removed from the boat. Everybody must put on life jacket and there should be extras on the boat.”
