The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) has said that it has established a marine unit while a dive unit will soon follow for it to be better disposed to tackle emergency on the Lagos waterways.
The General Manager, LASEMA, Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu who disclosed this at the 2nd Annual Stakeholders’ Forum on Water Transportation organized by the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) in Lagos Thursday noted that this decision was informed following increasing rate of marine accidents which the Lagos State Governor was not comfortable with.
Tiamiyu further stated that the dive unit would consist of two jet ski on the waterways that would get to the accident scene within a short interval and two boats that will take rescued victims off the shore to the hospital where they will be taken care of.
According to him,”Transportation system in Lagos is integrated between the land, the waterways and even the rail. Now, LASEMA has a foothold on the land firmly but in recent times, you will agree with me that there is a lot of marine accidents and Lagos state governor felt this should not be allowed to continue and then we put our heads together and devised what we called the marine unit of LASEMA. There will be the Dive unit of LASEMA that will appear very soon on the waterways.
“Now, the dive unit will consist of two jet ski, those jet ski are the fast scooters on the waterways that will get to an incident scene as quickly as possible and then there will be two other rescue boats that will take rescued victims off the shore to the hospital that will take care of them better.
“So, the totality of all of these means that while the marine police, LASWA, NIWA and all of them are doing their own, LASEMA has only come to add capacity. What it means is that Lagos waterways will be safer for all of us to work”.
He recalled that the last time the issue of people jumping into the lagoon started, the agency was incapacitated as it could only provide back up by bringing in medical practitioners who would treat the recovered victims while the deceased would be taken to the mogue.
“But today, we will be going into the sea ourselves, we will be part of whatever team that is in place to work on the waterways. That is what we mean by dive unit LASEMA is bringing”, he explained.
On why the agency asks so many questions when contacted on emergency, the LASEMA GM said,”I want to put it to Lagosians, if you have the mind to call for rescue, take a little minute to give information that we require because if you tell us that we should come and rescue someone in Badagry and the place is not Badagry, then you would have sent us on a wild goose chase.
“So, what we want to ask from you is the exact location of the incident so that we don’t go chasing nothing. It is important Lagosians key into this, yes, we know people are in panic mood when emergency occurs but we also say even with that panic mood, calm down and give us accurate information. We ask for location including landmarks so that when we are going, we look out for something to identify the particular spot.
“If we have all of that, it only means that we will just go straight to the scene of the incident, we won’t stop on the road and be asking where is this, where is that. Those are the little things that takes time but as soon as we have that information, we are good to go. Of course, we must also have quality information to know the right equipment to take. What is the essence of rushing to a location, you get there and discover that the equipment you need are not the ones you brought, that is not good”.
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