According to various surveys it is found that about 350 accidents occurred and 4,000 people died of accidents on waterways of Bangladesh in the past 15 years. After each major accident, the authorities pull up their sleeves and form an ad-hoc committee immediately to find out the persons responsible and determine the causes and solutions for these accidents. But to our utter disappointment, the only thing that happens immediately is the announcement of some kind of financial reward which is supposed to reduce the pains of the family members who lost their loved ones. Incidentally, most of these accidents take place during the major festivals when people leave Dhaka city to celebrate the occasions in company with their loved ones.
Governments come and go and various initiatives are taken but none of them addresses the fact that the main reason behind most of these accidents is the faulty design of vessels that were accorded approval by the concerned authorities. Most of the governments put emphasis on short-term activities like monitoring the overloading of ships and reducing the number of fishing boats and cargo vessels during festival seasons. This government has also done the same. But it is high time that we realized where a majority of the population use river vessels to travel in the southern part of Bangladesh, it would be impossible to stop overloading during festival time. Rather we should concentrate on framing appropriate policies for issuing registration and fitness certificates to the river vessels, preventing recruitment of the unskilled drivers and masters from operating launches and compelling the vessel owners to provide proper safety arrangements in the vessels. These measures should be taken up on an emergency basis to prevent further loss of human lives, particularly for the people who have no options but to use river vessels in spite of the dangers involved. We hope that the government will take up such measures as immediately as possible to minimize the dangers of turning the joyful occasions of our life into nightmares.
Sanaul Islam Shuvo
Department of Business Administration
East West University, Dhaka.
sanaulislamshuvo@gmail.com
Accidents on waterways
FE Team | Published: July 13, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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