Sun, 15 Oct 2017 10:37:31 +0000
JUST when the nation was recovering from the shock of the Mpulungu road accident which claimed over 17 lives, tragedy has struck again, except this time, on Lake Bangweulu where 20 fishermen are feared dead.
The 20 are said to have met their fate after all the five boats they were travelling in capsized due to a storm. By press time, search teams were reportedly busy trying to locate the missing bodies.
We are deeply saddened by the loss of so many lives, most likely many of them breadwinners who were on a mission to put food on the tables of their families.
The loss of so many lives in a twinkle of a moment is so distressing but let’s face it, the catastrophe is a timely reminder of how unsafe our water transport is, especially with the lack of strict control measures.
We totally agree with Passenger Pedestrian and Cyclist Association of Zambia President Laurence Kaoma’s concerns that something should be done to stop the rising number of accidents and subsequent deaths happening on our water bodies.
Like the PAPECA president says, it is unfortunate that the country had continued to record accidents on its water bodies because of lack of strict safety control measures and lack of sensitisation.
We urge the authorities that be, in this case the Ministry of Transport and Communication, to take Mr Kaoma sentiments seriously by coming up with strategies to prevent the loss of life resulting from accidents on our lakes and rivers.
A systematic sensitisation outreach campaign on the importance of observing the relevant safety measures and regulations pertaining to marine travel would come in handy.
The ministry would do well to come up with a system of monitoring the movement of vessels on the nation’s water bodies at any given time as is the case with aircrafts and even trains.
At present for instance, water vessels and canoes even move at night without restrictions. Even worse, people using water transport are also not provided with adequate information on weather patterns, risks and usage of various water vessels.
The fishermen are feared to have drowned because of the midnight storm which swept their canoes away. In this case, the misfortune would probably have been avoided if the fishermen had prior information about the weather.
Regrettably, this was not the case as there is no monitoring or indeed control system in place as to the travel time of canoes or vessels.
Perhaps government should also extend the ban on night travel to canoes and other vessels as is the case with buses and other public service vehicles.
One basic safety rule says ‘don’t take anything for granted.’ But as basic as it may sound this is probably one of the most violated rules.
We urge all people travelling by water, road and rail, among others, to take safety seriously to avoid loss of life. People should not take anything for granted by assuming that the unexpected can’t happen.
Let’s not take safety for granted to prevent accident and save lives.
