The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Afram Plains South, George Ofori, has stated that the Assembly, in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), will ensure strict compliance with the safety protocols in water transport in the district.
According to the DCE, users of the Afram River have thrown safety protocols to the wind, leading to many accidents on the river, with its corresponding deaths.
He made this remark when the Eastern Regional Directorate of NADMO, Kwame Appiah Kodua, presented 100 life jackets to the Volta Lake Transport Company and Boat Owners Association in the Afram Plains South District.
The presentation follows the sudden engine failure of the pontoon on February 16, 2021, while ferrying passengers and vehicles across the Afram River, resulting in a near disaster.
But for the intervention of local boat operators to rescue passengers on board following the failure of the Pontoon on the river for three days before being pulled offshore, many lives would have been lost.
Presenting the items, Kwame Appiah Kodua said the organisation was very concerned about the safety of passengers on the Afram River, therefore, urged that life jackets be worn by passengers, particularly those onboard canoes, when ferrying people across the river.
The pontoon and local canoes are the only means of crossing the Afram River from Ekye to Adawso and vice versa.
Residents of the island communities in the district also cross daily with local boats which very often are overloaded with goods and passengers, particularly during market days and social events.
The passengers do not wear life jackets when embarking on such risky journeys across the river resulting in many people drowning whenever a boat capsises.
The Afram Plains District Director of NADMO, Stephen Afram, advised canoe operators to desist from overloading their boats, and stop ferrying across the river whenever there is a storm or rain.
The post Afram Plains South District Assembly, NADMO to enforce safety protocols on river appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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