Increasing abandoned wrecks threatening navigation on Nigeria’s waterways

With a vast network of navigable and potentially navigable rivers, lakes, and creeks traversing more than 3000 kilometers of inland waterways, water transportation in Nigeria was expected to be a major revenue earner for government. In this report, TOLA ADENUBI looks at the menace of wrecks and abandoned vessels that litter the Lagos waterways and its damaging effects.

In recent times, the number of wrecks abandoned on the nation’s waterways has been on the rise, resulting in more boat mishaps and loss of lives and properties for water transportation users. In a chat with newsmen recently in Lagos, the Acting Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Mr. Danladi Ibrahim expressed concerns over the increasing numbers of wrecks on the nation’s waterways.

According to the NIWA Acting MD, “The number of abandoned and submerged vessels on the waterways is alarming. The problem is that anytime we remove one wreck today, by the time we go to the same spot the next week; we will see two or three wrecks around the same location. It is that worrisome.”

 

List of wrecks on waterways

Investigations by the Saturday Tribune revealed that there are about 15 wrecks littering the Lagos shoreline alone. Around Igbo-Elejo village, near Nigerdock facility, there are three submerged barges not yet removed, which are constituting dangers to water navigation in and around the area.

Other wrecks littering the Lagos coastlines, according data date obtained from the NIWA, are: Two cannibalised vessels, all submerged at Onisiwo village in Apapa; One partially submerged vessel opposite Dee-Jones around Liverpool in Apapa; Two partially submerged tug boats at Aloro village waters near Kirikiri; One submerged barge in Kirikiri waters, not far from Honeywell facility; One submerged fishing trawler also in Kirikiri waters, opposite Swift oil jetty; One submerged vessel (Young yu), also in Kirikiri waters; One partially submerged tug boat also in Kirikiri waters, not far from Bakare jetty; One partially submerged barge in Ijegun waters; One totally submerged vessel around the Atlas Cove area; One submerged barge around Apongbon lagoon; One submerged tug boat around Marine Police jetty in Elegbeta village; Two submerged dredgers in Ijora/Iddo Customs jetty; OOne submerged transporter in Ajah waters; and one submerged dredger also in Ajah waters, not far from Julius Berger site.

 

NIGHTMARE FOR OPERATORS

For many boat operators, the fear of wrecks on the Lagos shoreline is the beginning of wisdom. In the words of senior official of the Association of Tourist Boat Operators and Water Transporters of Nigeria (ATBOWATAN) stated that even though some of the wrecks are being removed by government, a collision by any speed boat with a submerged wreck can lead to loss of lives as well as loss of the boat.

In his words, “Many of our members work on the Lagos waterways with the fear of losing their prized asset, the boat. Many of these wrecks are not visible on the water surface, so avoiding them can be very difficult.

• Abandoned wrecks on inland waterways worrisome —NIWA

“Many of them are submerged inside the water, and easily flow upwards depending on the tide or waves prevalent in the water. When speed boats or vessels move on water, their movement, most times disturb the water tide or waves, and make wrecks that have been lying on the floor of the lagoon move. At times, wrecks that have become so light move upwards, and collide with onrushing speed boats or vessels, thereby sinking such boats and leading to loss of lives, that is if it’s a passenger boats like ours.

“If you remember, recently a passenger boat capsized on the Lagos lagoon and killed about five people. That boat hit a submerged wreck, and started taking in water. And once a boat starts taking in water, it is sinking.

“The most dangerous wrecks are the submerged ones. It is easier to avoid a floating wreck because I can see it while driving my boat. But if a wreck is submerged, and floating under water depending on the tidal waves, how do I see it and avoid it?

“The situation is rather pathetic when you have passengers who majorly are not good swimmers. Most times, the driver of the boat makes it out alive because many are trained swimmers even before getting employed as a boat driver. But for the passengers, the situation is better not imagined. We just hope the government removes all this wrecks from our waterways. The idea of dumping damaged or faulty vessels on the waterways, and leaving them to turn wrecks should also be looked into by the government.”

 

Why wrecks persists

for some stakeholders, wrecks have persisted on Nigerian waterways due to inadequate legislative provision in the country. In the words of the Executive Director of Eco Restoration Foundation, a non-governmental organization, “We have to save our coastline by implementation of policies, legislation and by providing the Nigerian Navy with enough coastal awareness to enforce Nigeria’s territorial integrity, even from the perspective of environmental hazards like ship wrecks.

“Some people take insurance from insurance companies abroad, they then come over here to dump the ships on our coastline because they are supposed to spend money on decommissioning the ship.

“When a ship has served its life time, you are supposed to take it to a dockyard and dismember it, recycle the metals; but they avoid such expenses, make money from insurance and they dump the vessels in the Nigerian coastline where nobody cares.

“Nigeria has no legislation or enforcement of existing legislations that help people to remove ship wrecks. So people find Nigeria a favourable ground to dump their ships that are no longer in use.

“There are particular winds on the Atlantic ocean that pushes abandoned ships to the Bight of Benin which is the area on the Atlantic coast that Nigerian shorelines fall within. That is why when a wreck is removed, another or even two resurfaces.”

 

Wreck insurance policy

with the plan by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to introduce a Wreck Insurance Policy (WIP) on all vessels calling at the nations ports, there seems to be a glimmer of hope that the increasing rate of wrecks on the nations waterways will begin to decline.

In the words of a port user, Frank Nwoko, the Wreck Insurance Policy is expected to make funds available for government to evacuate any vessel that, after calling at the nations ports, develops problem and is abandoned on the waterways

“Once every vessel subscribes to the policy, then if there is a problem, and the vessel cannot move, the fund can be easily used to evacuate it to a placed where it wont constitue navigational menace to other waterways users.”