Firm canvasses Bill for improved water safety in Nigeria

A global socio-economic and consultancy firm has canvassed a Bill to be passed at the National Assembly for improved water safety in Nigeria.

The firm, known as Bridging Aquatics (BRIGA), at a conference it hosted recently in Lagos, underscored the need for relevant stakeholders to engage in achieving that target.

“The absence of a Water Safety Bill in the country remains a big challenge and a major hindrance. Our plan is to host an international roundtable in October in Abuja as a follow up to this so as to present a draft bill on water safety because we should have that,” Adedapo Adelegan, chairman of BRIGA said.

Adelegan added that the aim of the Abuja conference was to achieve the water safety Bill both in Nigeria and across Africa.

Danielle Obe, chief executive of BRIGA, noted that Nigeria had the highest number of drowning reports in Africa at 27,000, calling for immediate measures to prevent the unfortunate occurrences.

According to Obe, “Learning to swim without acquiring other necessary swimming skills is not encouraging. Water is not the enemy, but lack of measures to keep safe and understanding survival skills.”

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Speaking more on drowning prevention, representatives from the Ministry of Transportation called for proper waste management and how to avoid water pollution in both liquid and solid forms in the waterways to prevent pollution.

“The need to reduce pollution, both liquid and solid, is also necessary in preventing drowning. If we manage our waste well, our waterways will be safe. Even if you can swim and mistakenly fall inside the water, the contaminated water may reduce the chances of survival,” she said.

The event gathered stakeholders from both the private and public sectors who discussed the importance of water safety in the country and measures needed to be put in place to achieve it.

The stakeholders noted that frequent inspection on waterways was also important to help to figure out outdated or overused safety tools like the Life jackets and change them.