Authorities must ensure all water vessels follow rules
Once again a tragic accident took place in a tributary of the Padma River in Munshiganj as a sand-laden bulkhead hit a picnic trawler. So far eight bodies were recovered and five people are still missing.
Thirty-four passengers of the picnic trawler were lucky enough to swim ashore. Soon after the accident, a five-member investigation committee led by Munshganj Additional District Magistrate Sharmin Ara was formed to probe the incident.
The committee has been asked to submit the probe report within three working days.
We have to wait a couple of days more to know the findings of the investigation, but the fact is if an operation against all types of illegal vessels, including monitoring and controlling the movement of sand-carrying boats (bulkheads) is not effectively carried out, it is difficult to avoid waterway accidents.
As a rule, sand-laden bulkheads are allowed to ply on water only on the day time, from the sunrise to sunset, yet in the Munshiganj accident, the bulkhead was on the river at 8 pm.
Therefore, if water vessels do not follow the rules, there will be no letup in this kind of tragedies on the river and the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways has rightly demanded operation of mobile courts across the country immediately to ensure that water vessels follow the all rules of operation.
The National Committee made the call in a statement to the Ministry of Shipping, Department of Shipping (DoS), Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), River Police and Coast Guard.
The truth is punishment works. The sailors without valid documents must be punished, bringing the vessel owners to book under the law for employing sailors and masters without papers.
It is mind boggling to know that against 15,000 registered vessels, there are at least 85,000 vessels of various types across the country. Among 70,000 illegal vessels, the number of bulkheads is at least 6,000.
It is still very surprising to note that out of 15,000 registered boats, the regular annual survey (fitness test) is done only for 8,000. The rest 7,000 unfit boats are plying freely.
If these anomalies continue to persist and the foul trend of violating rules goes unchecked, the nation will continue to see more tragedies like the one of Munshiganj on Saturday.
