Country Director of International Child Develoment Programme (ICDP) Ghana, Joyce Larnyo has advocated for effective supervision of transportation on water.
This comes after seven school children drowned on Wednesday, 10 May, 2023 in a boat which was reportedly being paddled by a twelve year old boy around Faana in the Weija-Gbawe municipality in Accra.
According to Mrs. Lanyo, there is a need for adults and much efficient people in society to handle water transportation so as to avoid a recurrence of a drowning incident.
The boat was reported to have been paddled by a 12 year old boy.
She called for adults and much more efficient people to handle water transportation so as to avoid a recurrence of a drowning incidence.
“But look, if you get to these places, there is no skilled officer or a driver or somebody that will ensure that whoever is transporting, whether school children, market women or whatever, is going through these processes. The driver [must be] well skilled and trained to carry people from one part of the river to the other side.”
Ms. Larnyo went on to lament on government’s failure to take action before accidents of such nature occur.
She called for the need of effective strategies for disasters and accidents before they occur.
“We’ve had government almost all the time coming out with some of these strategies, these knee-jack reactions when things of this nature happen. It is when the accident has happened that they bring in these life jackets and whatever to prove [that they are taking action]… they are mistaken. We are demanding that immediate action is taken in terms of enforcing safety regulations on these river fronts and I want to plead with authorities to take immediate action to build. I safety regulations on these river fronts; training, capacity building, life jackets.There should be a dedicated officer at the river bank 24/7 because sometimes these transportations happen in the night when there is nobody; there should be this officer there constantly monitoring people who are crossing from one side to the other.”
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Story by | Akwasi Gyamfi | univers.ug.edu.gh
