As a way of sanitising water transportation across the country, the Managing Director of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), George Moghalu , says the Authority would enforce the use of permits by boat operators to ensure standard.
Moghalu insisted that the aim was to ensure that only certified boats plies the waterways.
Moghalu spoke to the The Tide on the sidelines of a tour of facilities at NIWA’s operational base in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
He said he was working to identify the core challenges facing the country’s waterways with a view to providing solutions to them.
Moghalu restated his determination  to reorient new ways of doing things in NIWA  and make water transportation in the country safe.
He told The Tide that NIWA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a firm to provide life jackets across all waterfronts in the country.
According to him, the MoU is part of efforts to ensure safety on the nation’s inland waterways.
“As I speak, we have signed a memorandum with a firm that is going to provide life jackets across our waterfronts in the country because of our consideration for security.
“We have started the training process in some of our locations for boat operators and drivers so that we can get them to understand what we are doing. We are going to play our clear regulatory roles and enforce the use of permits before boats can enter our waterways.
“We cannot allow rickety boats to waste the lives of Nigerians.”
“Today we are clearing water debris and water hyacinths on some of our channels. We are doing the much we can to standardise the process and have clear data on those that operate on our waterways”, he said.