By Dadson A. Musa

Few years back, there was a boat capsize in which dozens of people died. They died because almost all of them did not have life jackets. So, in a move to remedy the situation so that more people do not lose their lives at sea again, government procured many life jackets and passed a law, making it mandatory for all boat owners and sea farers to travel with life jackets. This trend seems to hold for some time. Now we seem to have forgotten the tragedy of few years ago. It only seems to hold now for sea farers in the VIP class when travelling but the majority are traveling without life jackets. This past Christmas, I crossed over to Bonthe Island to enjoy the Christmas holiday of course. It was night time, you can imagine because I was late. All of us as passengers who crossed that night from Yargoi just did not have life jackets; with the exception of the captain. On the return trip which was day time, we were clustered again in a similar boat, again only the captain had a life jacket. And the journey is like close to an hour. Sometimes, the boats are overcrowded. Worst still, that night we came across fishermen in dug- out canoes without life jackets, you can imagine.

The point is, it is risky to travel especially on deep sea without life jackets. What if something should happen like maybe an engine failure, fuel shortage, or the wooden boat begins to leak? These were passengers making it for the first time to Bonthe who cannot swim. Do we always wait for major accidents, or disaster to strike before scrambling to take action. That is when property, money and precious lives have been lost before we take action. Most riverine communities across Sierra are guilty of this neglect. From western area bound by the Atlantic Ocean to the north where we have the Great Scarcies and little scarves rivers to Pujehun the story is the same. Especially in this time of feed saline where most of the projects are taking place in these riverine areas, the forgetfulness to carry life jackets must be seriously looked into.

The problem I found out with boat owners was capacity to procure these life jackets as they are imported. One Yayah, a boat captain whom I spoke to on the lack of life jackets told me that running cost of the boat is a constraint especially maintenance, fuel cost and keeping the engine in good condition. So, for him, procuring life jackets is additional cost which he cannot stand. But when asked further if he didn’t think he was risking people’ s lives travelling with them without a safety gear which is the life jacket, he was like dumbfounded. The harbour master that I contacted told me ‘Stock and supplies have run dry. Government needs to double its step and not wait until there is another sea disaster before putting things in place. The decline in the use of life jackets is palpable and is worrying. Maybe a lasting solution will be to start producing life jackets locally so we never run short on them.