25th June, 2018
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Lagos State Government and the Netherlands are considering collaboration in the area of boosting water transportation in Lagos.
The Head of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Lagos, Michael Deelan, who visited the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation on Monday in Alausa, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, said the Netherlands would like to partner with Lagos in boosting water transportation in the state.
He said Netherlands had lots of things in common with Lagos in terms of geography and proximity to the coast, saying that Netherlands had good waterway system controlled by latest technology, which Lagos could tap into this.
Deelan, who is also Netherlands’ Deputy Head of Mission in Abuja, said in Netherlands, the water system was clearly demarcated in such a way that operators in the system could be monitored and the whereabouts of any boat was known at any particular point in time through the deployment of Information and Communication Technology, ICT.
Commissioner for Transportation, Ladi Lawanson said Lagos was looking at the possibility of working with Netherlands in the area of water transportation as the country was known to have a good waterway system.
“The Dutch are very good mariners, we can leverage on this to build world class water system policy,” he said, adding that the State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode was in the process of launching the State’s water master plan.
Lawanson added that the state government was looking at the possibility of getting manufacturers in Netherlands that would be willing to build partnership with Lagos in the area of water transportation.
He said Lagos, being the commercial nerve centre of the country had a huge population that is still growing, saying that this had put a lot of pressure on the road transportation.
He stated that even though the government was investing in rail transportation, it would still not be enough to cater for the transportation needs of the huge population, which he said, informed the decision of government to look at ways of revamping its waterways system.
“Presently the road and rail transportation are still inadequate, we have designed our water transportation master plan which would be unveiled by the Governor soon. Water transportation entails channelization and dredging of the waterways, construction of jetties.
” Water transportation requires maintenance, it requires removal of wreckage from the water for smooth navigation and to make channelization possible and it cost huge money to maintain. There has to also be safety and security of the waterways. We want Netherlands to collaborate with us,” he said.