About 80 percent of Nigeria’s territorial waters are yet to be surveyed while 90 percent are yet to be charted, according to recent data, Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has said.
According to her, a holistic hydrographic knowledge of Nigerian maritime space chart in the least possible time is critical to effective maritime operations.
Speaking during the celebration of the 2019 World Hydrographic Day at Naval Dockyard in Lagos, Usman observed that efficient management of the maritime environment through plausible knowledge of the waterways would evolve critical strategies that would secure and regulate activities in the sector for sustainable use and exploitation of the water resources.
Usman, who commended the Nigerian Navy for taking the lead in producing the first navigational chart of the Nigerian waters, said lack of basic hydrographic details would make it difficult, even near impossibility to acquire necessary knowledge for exploration and exploitation of the maritime environment.
She called for collaboration through information sharing, especially joint survey projects that would leverage the Local Chart Production Capacity already developed by the Nigerian Navy’s Hydrographic Office (NNHO).
She however said more maritime information would be made available to government and maritime operators in an internationally acceptable manner, adding that these would in turn stimulate effective governance of the nation’s territorial waters.
“Hydrography assisted the NPA management in deepening its channels by enabling the authority to expand its marine services to Ijegun Egba channel, which was critical to the successful navigation and anchoring of the famous EGINA FPSO vessel. It helped in the completion of remedial dredging of Escravos channel, frequent wreck removals along the channels and the unveiling of Simulation Center at Dockyard,” she disclosed.
She further said that safety, security, and the biodiversity of the environment play important roles in the maritime environment, which is why the United Nation (UN) sustainable development Goal 14, lays emphasis on the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean, seas and marine resources.
In his address, vice admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas, the chief of Naval Staff, said the Nigerian Navy was the first to produce navigational chart for the nation’s waters and expressed hope that the launching of the chart would take the nation’s maritime sector to greater heights.
Ibok stated that the Hydrographic Chart is not only for the safety and security within the Nigerian territorial waters, but also critical for information on sea and ocean management for national development.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
