At least 4,420 people died, 520 people injured and 400 people remained missing in more than 550 passenger launch accidents that took place in last 38 years, including latest launch capsize in Ramnabad River in Golachipa under Patuakhali.
Of those, around 1,960 persons died and 176 persons went missing in the last decade, according to the official statement of the Department of Shipping and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA).
However, experts claim the actual number of accidents, death and missing was higher than shown in the government statistics.
According to the experts and officials concerned, gross negligence of the authorities in ensuring safety measures, awarding licenses coupled with a lack of awareness among passengers and plying the launches with inefficient masters (drivers) caused most of these accidents.
As such fatal mishaps continue to recur, the death toll from Saturday’s launch capsize rose to 14 with the recovery of 6 more bodies on Sunday morning while at least, 25 passengers have remained missing.
Many of the accidents happened either because the launches were unfit or overloaded or due to collision with other vessels or structures. Although hundreds of probe committees were formed and the incidents were investigated, however, nobody was reported till date to have been punished in this regard, experts added.
Between January 2002 and July 2013, only five to seven probe reports were made public following some major river mishaps. Almost all the recommendations made by those committees towards putting an end to such loss of lives remain unimplemented.
According to the statistics of the government, the number of death of the people was only 29 in five accidents in 1977, after the Independence of Bangladesh.
The highest numbers of launch accidents were occurred in 2004. A total of 127 lives were lost in 41 launch accidents in a single year.
Meanwhile, the highest numbers of lives were lost in 2003 and 1986. A total 464 people died in 31 accidents in 2003 while 426 people died in only 11 launch accidents.
According to statistics of the Nirapod Noupath Bastabayon Andolon (Safe Waterway Implementation Movement), around 6,000 people died and more than 700 persons are missing in 535 major launch accidents in the country from 1976 to 2012.
Although there were no major incidents in 2013, some 22 people lost their lives in seven launch accidents.
The movement’s General Secretary Aminur Rasul Babul told the Dhaka Tribune that the reports of 863 probe committees, formed to investigate 535 accidents, were not made publicly. At the same time, the recommendations of the committees were never implemented by the government.
As a result, these accidents continue to recur in the waterways, he added.
He further informed that all of these probe committees recommended strict monitoring to stop plying of unfit launches, increasing the number of ship surveyors and inspectors in the shipping department, bringing all the inland vessels under marine insurance, arrangement for formal training for the drivers and modernisation of the Inland Shipping Ordinance 1976.
“But the government has yet to implement most of them. In many cases, the investigations focused on wrong issues instead of the main reasons behind the accidents. Many probe bodies were more concerned about finding out a ‘culprit’ and paid no heed to identify measures to prevent such accidents,” Babul added.
The Department of Shipping, which regulates waterways transport, had failed to check and monitor the plying of unfit and overloaded vessels due to a lack in manpower.
Acknowledging the shortage, Department of Shipping’s Ship Surveyor and Examiner SM Nazmul Huq told the Dhaka Tribune that the staff crisis was indeed crippling the department’s monitoring work.
At present, only four surveyors were posted to verify the fitness of vessels registered by the department.
According to a statement of the department in December 2012, there were around 8,668 registered vessels, where 984 of them were passenger carriers.
Despite having a plan to increase the number of surveyors to 24 in 2012, the plan never saw light due to lack of interest of the government and high officials of the department.
In most cases, the passenger launches carry insufficient lifebuoys and no life jackets at all, thus a higher death toll occurs following a mishap, experts said.
Under the terms of an ordinance of the shipping department, passenger vessels should keep as many life jackets as passengers on board and at least one lifebuoy for every four passengers. But this provision has never been implemented.
Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune: “The authorities concerned were asked to ensure that the ships or launches are not being driven by inefficient masters or staffs. We are also taking measures to resist them to reduce the launch accidents.”
“We are also going to start the activities of newly formed ‘Shipping Police’ to ensure the security and safety of the water routes of the country. It will eliminate the problems of the sector,” he added.
