By Hauwa Ali
The General Manager of Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), Mr. Damilola Emmanuel, says the authority has increased the number of it’s water guards from 48 to 108 in the last 2 years, in a bid to improve safety on the waterways.
In a statement, the LASWA boss said, the increase in the workforce is to boost the confidence of waterways users to increase patronage.
According to him, the security guards are employed to be able to cover the nooks and corners of the state’s inland waterways, having discovered that some activities were still going on in some areas in total violation of safety regulations of the inland waterways.
Emmanuel explained that the Lagos State Waterways agency improved on its search and rescue unit which had been monitoring the stretch of Lagos inland waterways on a daily basis.
He also posited that routine monitoring has significantly reduced accidents on the waterways.
“We have been able to increase the number of our workforce to be able to cover the nooks and crannies of inland waterways in Lagos state because we found out that a lot of activities were still going on in certain areas and they were not adhering to safety measures of the inland waterways.
“So, we increased our water Guards number from 48 to 108 and we carried out training for them as well to ensure that they can meet up with international best practices of what a water Guards’ rules and regulations should be on the waterways.
“The manpower was increased towards the end of 20202 and early 2021. But we had the plan all the while but we just did it and within two years now, we have seen the growth.
“We improved on our search and rescue unit because people want to feel confident, they want to know that in case of any emergency, we can respond quicker.
“We now have an emergency and rescue team which goes out almost every day to monitor activities on the waterways and be able to respond to any emergency and that has greatly improved the confidence of those who are currently using the waterways, but we still want to see what we can do to pull in those who are not using the waterways