General Manager, Area Offices Coordination, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) Tammy Fiberesima, has said there is a need to digitise the physical environment of the country’s waterways for effective monitoring, surveillance and seamless movement of boats and bigger vessels to avoid the incessant mishaps.

Fiberesima gave the submission in a paper titled, ‘The Overview of the Relationship between NIWA and the States Harbouring Inland Waterways in Nigeria concerning Search and Rescue Operation’.

He said NIWA has been collaborating with states harbouring inland waterways in areas, which include, a joint safety awareness drive; distribution of PFDs to inland water users in these states as well as the acquisition and distribution of marine vessels to these states, such as mobile ambulance, security patrol boats, among others

Other areas are the construction of marine infrastructures such as landing jetties, river ports, among others, clearing of aquatic weed-infested waterways, carrying out joint boats and water crafts mishaps, investigations and rescue missions as well as an improvised search and rescue operation.

He said to optimally curb the incessant boat mishaps, there is the need to blend the efforts of all relevant regulators, especially NIWA and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), to come up with an action strategy implementation plan.

Fiberesima said this plan involves, identifying flashpoints and watching out for unsafe conditions within the waterways, fishing out obstructions on the waterways, as well as making available an adequate number of seaworthy and fit boats on peak periods.