Boat owners to provide life jackets for passengers

The Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation(NADMO), Mr Ransford Boakye, has directed all boat owners engaged in commercial transport system on the various rivers in the region, to acquire life jackets for their passengers.

Mr Boakye was reacting to recent reports by the Ghana News Agency’s Media Auditing and Development Tracking team about boat operators on the Afram River in the Kwahu Afram Plains District, operating without life jackets for their passengers.

The GNA had observed that passengers travelled for more than four hours on the Lake to the Dwarf Islands without life jackets.

As a result, four persons recently lost their lives, while travelling on the Lake.

Mr Boakye observed that the boat operators are in private businesses, and make profits for themselves, and, therefore, have the responsibility to get life jackets in their boats for their passengers to ensure their safety.

He said the life jackets being held by NASDMO are only for emergencies, and not for boat operators.

“NADMO only has the duty to ensure that all boats on the Lake have life jackets for their passengers, and we will strongly ensure that,” he said.

Mr Boakye said his outfit was going to liaise with the Kwahu Afram Plains North District Assembly, to institute a by-law to impress upon boat operators to have jackets for all their passengers.

He, however, warned all boat operators on the Volta Lake and any other river in the region, to study the weather before making any movement on the water, “especially in this rainy season.”