National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has stated it has now issued emergency numbers to waterways users in case of incidents on waterways so that the passengers can easily reach out to the agency for quick rescue operations.
The Authority added that it has also made two boats available for search and rescue in times of accidents on waterways.
Engr. Sarat Braimah, Lagos Area Manager of NIWA told our correspondent recently while itemising some of the efforts of the agency in the past one year.
Engr. Braimah added that the agency was engaged in continuous training and retraining of captains because according to her, most of the captains are uneducated.
She said that most of the operators did not always know what to tell passengers when there are incidents at waterways.
The training, Braimah stated, is carried out in local languages for better understand for the captains.
Her words, “We want to train and retrain as many captains as possible because we realise that many of them are not educated. They don’t even know what and what to tell people when incidents happen.
“So, we are teaching them in our local languages using Yoruba, Egun and the languages they understand, telling them what to do and what not to do in case of emergencies.
“We have emergency numbers that we distribute to water users so that in case there is an incident, we can easily be contacted.
“We have about two boats that we have positioned for search and rescue in case there is an emergency,” she explained
