Managing Director, National Inland Waterways Authority NIWA, Dr. George Moghalu

The National Inland Waterways Authority NIWA has said that though Nigeria is blessed with over 10, 000 kilometres of inland waterways, over 7,000kilimetres are not currently navigable due to paucity of funds for capital and maintenance dredging, leaving only about 3, 000kilometres navigable all year round.

This development, which is partly responsible for the worsening carnage on the nation’s waterways, may also hinder the expected development of the country’s water transport segment to reduce the pressure on the roads with the attendant high maintenance cost and loss of lives through crashes.

Managing Director/CEO of NIWA, Dr. George Moghalu, who spoke exclusively via a response to a questionnaire sent to him, admitted that the agency has not been able to open up the entire length and breadth of the country’s 10, 000km of inland waterways due to lack of funds for capital and maintenance dredging that would keep the channels navigable all through the year.

He also admitted that dredging the entire 10, 000kilometres of the inland waterways would be a capital intensive project, hence the agency restricts itself to the 3,000kms, noting that the problem of funding is general in the country and not restricted to NIWA alone.

 Dr. Moghalu, who took over the reins of power at the agency about three years ago, further disclosed that NIWA is currently working towards boosting its internally generated revenue as part of measures to bridge the funding gaps to enable the authority meet its statutory obligations.

“The truth is that Nigeria is blessed with over 10,000 Kilometres of waterways, but as we speak, it is only over 3,000kms that is all-year navigable, and what that means is that the channels are open, and you can use them. It is a major challenge, but you don’t lose sight of the fact that opening up the entire over 10,000 kilometres is quite a capital-intensive project. In the world of dredging, you have the capital dredging, you have the maintenance dredging. Capital dredging is quite a massive investment, and funding is a challenge.

“It is not peculiar to NIWA. It is a general challenge, because if you remember, the resources available to government are quite drastically reduced. And that is also impacting on the agencies government usually gives money to support. That is why for now, we are laying emphasis on internally generated revenue.

“Having said that, it is a major challenge getting all the over 10, 000 waterways dredged to be able to make them all year-round navigable and maintain them, because apart from dredging, you have to do river training, you have to lay points, you have to provide for the clearance of water hyacinth, you have to provide for the removal of wrecks, and what have you. There is quite a lot that is involved and that is why today in NIWA, emphasis is now on maintenance dredging to ensure that the over 3,000 kilometres are all-year-round navigable.

“That is why we are now investing in procurement. We have procured some dredgers and we are still procuring more, so that as an authority, we can now increase the maintenance dredging of the over 3, 000 kilometres that are navigable and ensure that all the channels can remain open and are constantly all-year-round navigable, so that vessels can ply them, while we gradually try to open more channels, depending on the resources that are available us”, Dr. Moghalu said.

Recall that there have been repeated cases of boat mishaps across the country, through which many citizens including women and children have lost their lives.

Recall that no fewer than 19 persons died in Lagos on the July 8, 2022 due to a boat accident. Also, sometime in December last year, no fewer than 40 persons including school children were reportedly killed in a boat accident in Kano, among several others, some of which are unreported. Only recently also, scores were reported to have died in Anambra State, the home state of the NIWA-boss in what stakeholders have described as unending blood- letting on the country’s inland waterways.

Many stakeholders have also wondered which states in the country are covered by these 3, 000 kilometres, which the NIWA says is navigable, as there have been repeated cases of boat accidents across the entire length and breadth of the country including Lagos, Cross River, Delta, Bayelsa, Kogi, Kebbi, Kano and most recently, Anambra State with very high casualty figures.