Mr Oluwadamilola Emmanuel, the General Manager, Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), says that the Lagos State Government has increased its safety personnel from 48 to 108.
Emmanuel told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos that the move was meant to boost passenger confidence in plying water transport.
He said that the authority had been focused on safety in the last two years to enable passengers be more confident in its operations.“One of the first things we did was to increase the personnel who manage safety around the jetties from 48 to 108, which has helped us tremendously.
“This has helped us a lot in terms of monitoring.
“A lot of negative activities have reduced to the barest minimum as a result of the increase in personnel.
“We have also been able to upgrade our Rescue and Emergency Units to ensure that we respond quickly in case of emergency at different locations,” Emmanuel said.
He said that LASWA had also established Inland Waterways Monitoring Data Management Centre, which had help them to monitor activities right from their office.
The LASWA boss said it had also started random inspection of boats, which superceded the biannual standard inspection of boats.
He noted that the random inspection had helped in monitoring boat operators who violated operational regulations. (NAN)