The Kaduna area office of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) says it will phase out the use of wooden boats in the state in the next two years.

The area manager, Isa Aliyu, disclosed this during a courtesy visit to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Kaduna zonal office on Monday.

He explained that the authority was meeting with the boat operators to see how they could form an association to ease the phasing out of the wooden boats.

“Most of the accidents recorded on our waterways are with wooden boats or canoes; that’s why we will be facilitating how these operators can acquire speed boats.

“Currently, we have four speed boats in our office, which we rent out to the operators; we plan to link them with organisations or companies that will provide these boats, ” he said.

Mr Aliyu explained that NIWA has been sensitising the people in areas along river Kaduna regarding the need to use life jackets and avoid overloading the boats.

He said the authority would collaborate with NAN to further sensitise the public on safety measures to take while riding in the waters.

Mr Aliyu urged operators to get rid of wooden boats that were older than five years and use the boats during the day to avoid accidents.

The area manager said the guidelines were part of the “Transportation Regulation Code 2023”,  adding that offenders of the regulations would be fined or taken to court for prosecution.

He said passengers have to leave a boat once an operator doesn’t provide life jackets and can also demand the operators to stop speeding.

Mr Aliyu urged the residents to stop building on “the right of way”, which is 100 metres perpendicular away from the water, to avoid flooding and the destruction of property.

(NAN)