LASWA Marks 108 Wrecks on Lagos Waterways, Begins Channelisation Projects
By DAPO OLAWUNI
The Managing Director of Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) Mr Oluwadamilola Emmanuel has said that the authority has marked 108 wrecks on the lagos Waterways which are inhibiting safe navigation of boats.
The LASWA boss said the agency is making the map available online for every operator to have access to it.
Mr Emmanuel who was speaking at the 1st Annual Conference of Barge Operators Association of Nigeria (BOAN) in Lagos on Tuesday, said that LASWA has commenced two major channelisation projects along Ikorodu-Falomo routes as well as Ojo-Badagry routes.
Speaking, he said “Late last year, LASWA was able to mark the entire waterways and all the wrecks, and we found about 108 wrecks which the map is currently in our office, and we are also going to make that available online for people to have access”
“Every year, we identify strategic wrecks on our waterways which NIWA and LASWA remove on yearly basis, this is jointly done by us because of budgetary constraints”
“In terms of channelisation and other capital ventures, we are in discussions with the private sectors to dredge and pick up the sand and sell it, as opposed to waiting on the state government to dredge the channel”
“This year alone, the state government is doing two major channelisation projects. There is Ikorodu to Falomo the bariga area. There is also the Ojo to Badagry” he said
According to the LASWA boss, out of the 20 local governments in Lagos State, fifteen of them are assessable by water. Apart from passenger jetties, there is also room for cargo jetties in some of these terminals.
He said that creation of cargo jetties is in the transportation plans of the state government which is currently being reviewed in line with modern realities.
Speaking in terms of safety of Waterways in Lagos and mishaps, he said “We have a monitoring and enforcement team that goes onboard, one of the things we realised was data, how do you identify the operators? In other sublime climes, they have a control centre that enables them monitor passenger boats or cargo boats.
“This year has been approved for us to set up a control room in order to track passenger operations and cargo operations. This is not to just generate revenue, it is principally to ensure safety, the several incidences that has happened to passenger boats, we find it difficult to ascertain what happened.
“We are currently upgrading our emergency and rescue units, we already have them on Falomo, we want to extend them to Ojo and Ikorodu, from these location they can get to anywhere”
