Take weather warnings seriously

WE are again into the “cyclone” season when we witness the loss of lives, mostly at sea.
Some people ignore weather warnings and travel out to sea only to encounter mishaps resulting in the loss of lives.
Some take risks by crossing fast-flowing and flooded rivers when told not to.
Others refuse to move away from hillsides and slopes which are likely to experience landslides.
Tragedies happen when we least expect them.
To minimise the chances of them happening, people have to take precautions and follow regulations which will protect them.
For example rules on sea travel should be clear to everyone – boat operators and passengers – before they leave on a journey.
They break the rules at their own peril.
And if the accidents are due to negligence or breaching regulations, punishment is the best deterrent.
For example, the size of the boat and the outboard engine it uses and how much extra fuel it should carry on each trip.
Equally important is the number of passengers and the amount of cargo each boat is allowed to carry on any one trip.
Then there is the issue of weather warnings which for some reason people ignore – and later regret when there is a mishap at sea.
It is often people living in the islands who ignore strong wind warnings and venture out to sea during bad weather.
Whether to go fishing or travel to other places, they throw caution to the wind buoyed by the confidence of having done it successfully so many times before – plus the experience of travelling in such treacherous conditions.
In fact years of practice and experience in sea travel put them in good stead as it is the only means of travelling from one point to another.
They had seen their grandfathers and village elders do it so many times that it became a necessary means of survival.
There should be penalties for those who ignore the warnings.
The government knows how much it costs to conduct searches and rescue operations when people encounter mishaps at sea.
And the rules are useless unless monitored and enforced.
There is a National Maritime Safety Authority which should be monitoring safety at sea.
Whatever regulations it is enforcing now to guide boat operators and travellers are not working.
Or not enough. More needs to be done obviously – to save lives.
Surrounded by a vast expanse of ocean, it is inevitable that sea travel in island nations such as Papua New Guinea become a norm because it is necessary for those living in the outlying island groups and coastal areas to use the sea to reach other destinations.
For most of them, there just is not other means of travelling than by sea.
For ages they have used and adapted to this form of travel as their only means of communication and accessing other places.
For a country with islands scattered across the group, the need for sea travel becomes inevitable.
But as has been witnessed in past holiday seasons, not everyone arrived safely at their destinations.
The national and provincial governments are responsible for regulating safety at sea by ensuring all those who operate boats have safety equipment on board.
There just has been too many unnecessary loss of lives at sea.
It needs to be stopped.