By Cliffsimeon Achulonu
The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Lagos Zonal Office, has puled down shanties on the Lagos channels around iddo waterfront to secure the area for navigation.
The development is sequel to petitions and reports of unwholesome activities and presence of suspected pirates who hide in the shanties where they plan and launch attacks against legal occupants of waterfront facilities, not excluding leaving behind fishing nets on the waterways to takedown boats and vessels transporting goods across the channel.
The New NIWA Lagos Zonal Manager Engr. Sarat Lara Braimah, who led the clearing operation, gave order that all waterfronts and infrastructures in Lagos, where the federal government regulatory agency finds such habitations should be pulled down.
“We want to change the narrative of engagements on our Waterways and the era when people blame NIWA for not being proactive enough is over. Until people respect constituted authority on right of way on Lagos waterways, we shall not let them sleep”.
She said that, the Federal Government through NIWA, would no longer tolerate the situation where miscreants pretending to be fishermen, turn water front ambiance to slaughter houses and operational grounds to attack innocent users and operators of the waterways.
Niwa is also putting an eye on the ijora waterfront to which adequate notice and certain human intervention has been carried out to forestall breakdown of law and order in that axis, and also to avoid unnecessary accusations against government good gestures in husbanding waterfront property across the state.
“I think we should be seen to discharge our mandate without fear or favour and in weeks to come, we would create a clear picture of what is where and who has our mandate on such critical areas.” Braimah stated.
Braimah disclosed that, on the Ikorodu area of Lagos, NIWA team and a harvester has been deployed to clear the emerging menace of water hyacinth which is making navigation almost impossible on that axis and to provide access to boat operators and movement of vessels to the Ikorodu inland port.
I think we can address this issue of water hyacinth technologically and as soon as the rains would allow us some time to do a good work, we are surely going to get around it one way or another” She futher explained.