Steps to prevent riverine mishaps brook no delay

It is always better late than never. Hundreds of inquiry committees were formed in the past to probe riverine accidents. But nobody knows for certain whether such bodies submitted their reports to the government at all or what the recommendations were or whether any of the suggestions thus made, was implemented. Finally, a probe committee, as a FE report said last Monday, placed its report to the ministry of shipping (MoS) with more than 20 recommendations. Only time will tell whether or not the authorities will act on the recommendations to minimise the otherwise disastrous riverine accidents. One recommendation specifically pleaded for updating existing laws to prevent such accidents during Eid holidays, and storms and cyclones.
In fact, probe reports on river accidents should be made public and the persons responsible, be brought to book. This will ensure transparency and accountability of the authorities, particularly of the regulatory authorities of river vessels. Probe reports should not be kept a secret in the name of official secrecy. There might also be a commission to find out why so many probe committees have failed to submit reports. The investigations in many cases focussed on wrong issues, instead of the main reasons behind the accidents.
Four factors, as the experts say, are usually responsible for frequent accidents of river vessels -- vessel design, operating environment, human factors and enforcement and educational factors. Vessel design factor involves faulty design and construction, mechanical failure of vessels and insufficient and flawed navigational instruments in the vessels, while human factor involves overloading and incompetence of the captain, master and other staff. Lack of weather forecasting facilities and mass awareness is also responsible for river accidents.
Most accidents, according to survey reports, take place between March and July and in October. The authorities should take additional measures during this period to avoid accidents. Needed badly are steps to improve skills of professionals involved in operating the water vessels and to raise awareness of the people. Overloading of passenger vessels is a regular feature, particularly during festival times. Due to absence of prior ticketing system, the actual number of passengers on board remains unknown. This provides scope for overloading more easily. Sometimes the authorities issue notices to faulty vessels for stopping operation until these are made fit. But the launch owners succeed in operating their unfit vessels in collusion with a section of corrupt officials of the concerned regulatory authorities, ignoring the provisions of Inland Shipping Ordinance (ISO) 1976. The most alarming is the scarcity of trained, skilled and competent crew for safe operation of the vessels. As a result, the ship-owners have to rely on unskilled and untrained crew. The Department of Shipping, which regulates waterways transport, cannot check plying of unfit and overloaded vessels owing to lack of manpower. In fact, at the root of all riverine mishaps is lack of good governance in the sector. The grim scenario can only be reversed if recommendations of different inquiry committees could be implemented step by step.