LASWA, International Body Partner To Improve Safety On Lagos Waterways

 

By Victor Okiche 

The Lagos State Waterways Authority, LASWA, has teamed up with the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA) and Interferry, a global ferry safety association, to strengthen safety measures across Lagos’ inland waterways.

The partnership was unveiled during a facility tour of LASWA operations, with stakeholders assessing current safety protocols and exploring ways to improve ferry transportation in the state.

The General Manager of LASWA, Mr. Damilola Emmanuel, described ferry safety as essential to efficient water transportation, noting that Lagos has already recorded improvements in waterway operations through the use of life jackets, bi-annual boat inspections, crew training, and upgraded communication technology across jetties.

He emphasized the importance of the newly established Ferry Control Room, which collects data to guide real-time decision-making and enhance passenger safety.

“When MOWCA approached Lagos State to say, look, we’re looking for where we want to host a ferry safety conference and we think Lagos is a good place. Are you willing to partner with this? Lagos State government said, yes, we are ready to partner.

“As you know, we’ve enjoyed safety over the inland waterways in Lagos State. We want to continue to improve upon safety, knowing full well that we’re going to be doing this with international partners who can come in and share knowledge with us and tell us exactly how to improve our safety practices.

“Interferry is an international safety body which promote ferry safety from Europe to America, to Asia and to Africa. They’re a big ferry safety body and they’ve been doing this all over the world.

“They have not been to West Africa before now, and felt they need to come down to also come and have a ferry safety conference over here.”

Mr. Emmanuel revealed that Interferry, which promotes safety standards across Europe, America, and Asia, is collaborating with LASWA for the first time in West Africa. 

On efforts that LASWA has put in place to ensure safety on the inland waterways, the LASWA chief stated that, “First things first is wearing of life jackets. We ensure that our water guards ensure that people wear their life jackets. Secondly, we also introduce what we call a bi-annual inspection of boats every year.

“Thirdly, we’ve introduced technology, which is the way the world is going now. You have to use technology to make things much smarter. So what we have done is been able to monitor real time some of our jetties and even have communication with some boats operators as they go on the waterways.

“And of course, we have continued to talk about safety to the passengers, even organising training and workshops for the captains and the deckhands in partnership with companies like Yamaha, who have organized a deckhand and captains training over time.

“Our Control Room has also been of help to our safety campaign. Data from our Control Room helps us make informed decisions always. And that’s very, very important because once you have data, you can make informed decisions.

“With data, we are able to now know that we have more people in certain areas using waterways transportation, and we need to ramp up safety in those areas and several others.”

On his part, the CEO of Interferry, Mr. Mike Corrigan, said Lagos is currently the only African city the association is partnering with, and he hopes to extend support to other countries on the continent. 

He disclosed that a team of 12 global safety experts is on ground in Lagos to offer insights on navigation, vessel operations, and life-saving strategies.

According to Corrigan: “I have a team here of about 12 experts in various safety matters from navigation to safe operation of vessels, to life-saving, to all facets of safety.

“So what we want to do is to be able to tell LASWA what we’ve learned and offer our guidance and assistance.

“LASWA is now a member of Interferry. Interferry is a worldwide ferry trade association. We represent the ferry industry around the world with almost 300 members. We have a great opportunity to be able to share and learn on both sides.

“For now, Lagos is the only African city we have this with. However, we want to come into Africa more often to be able to help improve the waterways in Africa.

“We’ve had a couple of conferences now. This will be our third conference and we hope to come back and offer our services to anybody who would like to participate with Interferry.”