Centre reveals Madang leads with most maritime accidents

National
Overloading vessels, such as by this dinghy in Madang, has led to all sorts of problems. The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre showed statistics that Madang was one of the leading provinces in terms of maritime incidents. – Picture supplied

THE Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) have statistics showing that Madang is one of the leading provinces in terms of maritime incidents.
In a presentation during the review of the Small Craft Act 2015 in Lae, it was seen that boats loading betel nuts and people from Madang to Karkar had gone missing.
Those travelling from Madang to Morobe and Madang to Wewak were no exception.
“After five years, what has Madang done?” NMSA small craft safety officer Ishmael Kawi said.
“These are the challenges that they put forward during their presentation.”
Kawi said Madang had challenges like continuous changes in head of administration which affected their implementation, budget constraints, staffing constraints and office space.
“Madang doesn’t have a board yet five years after the Act came into effect,” he said.
“West Sepik also came in and presented their challenges, their achievements.
“They have gone ahead and registered boats, licensing has commenced, they conduct awareness, the administration is supportive – the political will is there.
“East Sepik, Morobe and Oro are all the same – they have the administrative and political support and they’ve appointed a board, established their registries, appointed staff and they are working towards achieving the goal of the act
that is to promote safety and properly regulating the usage of small boats.
Kawi said operators were not taking heed of the warnings and travelling and it all came down to safety.
He said the aim of the small craft legislation was to regulate and promote safety.
“In terms of passenger loading, dinghies travelling at night, out of sight of land, dinghies without safety equipment and safety gear, operators without a licence or experience are some things that are contributing to accidents at sea,” he said.
“We can save lives if we adhere to the rules and regulations.”
Kawi said there was funding available for provinces that could seek help through the National Maritime Safety Authority to establish their small craft registries.