PESHAWAR: Public life is vulnerable as authorities have failed to enforce guidelines for regulating boat and ferry operations and safety in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Officials told Dawn that the guidelines were formulated by the relief and rehabilitation department and were circulated to the local government department after their formal approval by the chief secretary in 2019.

They said the Boats and Ferries Regulation, Operations and Safety Act, 2019, was also drafted but it never reached the provincial assembly for approval.

The officials said the guidelines on safe boating were approved by the government with clear orders for their effective implementation, but to no avail.

They said the initiative came after a boat carrying 50 people from Dedal Kamach in Shangla to Haripur capsized in the Indus River in Burg, Tarbela, in July 2019 claiming several lives.

Relief dept asked DCs for measures to ensure safety of water transport

The officials said after the guidelines were formulated, the relief and rehabilitation department wrote to deputy commissioners across the province for measures to ensure the safety of water transport.

“During a meeting chaired by the chief secretary [in 2019], officials of the local government department were tasked with enforcing regulations for boating in the province,” a senior government official told Dawn.

He, however, said the guidelines were never enforced and instead, the official file about them “went missing” from records with the senior government officials claiming to have no clue about it.

The official added that the guidelines for “public, private and commercial swimming pools” were notified afterward.

Some other officials told Dawn that not only were the guidelines formulated for safe boating but they were approved and circulated by the KP government as well.

They said had those guidelines been implemented, 50 seminarians would’ve not lost life in a Tanda Dam boat tragedy.

An official said when the local government department was formally told to implement those guidelines, its response was that those circulated were for swimming pools only and that the irrigation department should be contacted for the guidelines on safe boating.

Another official of the local government department shared a copy of rules for swimming pools saying it is the gazette notification for Public, Private and Commercial Swimming Polls (Regulations, Establishment and Operation) By-Laws, 2019.

On the other hand, officials of the irrigation department told Dawn that it had nothing to do with boating in dams and other reservoirs and that the matter was “beyond their mandate.”

“Our department only maintains the dams and water reservoirs. What I know is that the rules were circulated,” a senior official of the irrigation department told Dawn.

A proposed law, whose draft was shared in the 2019 meeting presided over by the chief secretary, read that the tehsil municipal administration or tehsil local administration shall provide proper infrastructure at each wharf and shall also provide Jetty for docking or for embarkation and disembarkation or loading and unloading by boats and jetties of goods and boarding or un-boarding of passengers.

According to it, all boats or ferries will be registered with the excise and taxation officers (E&T) at respective districts. The E&T officers will maintain records of the registered boats and ferries under this Act in accordance with the provisions contained in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Motor Vehicle Rules, 1969.

“A boat shall not proceed on any voyage, or ply on any water unless she has a certificate of fitness and a certificate of registration, in force and applicable to such voyage or water. Each boat must carry one wearable life jacket for each person on board separately for adults and children.”

The proposed law also said the owner or in charge of the boat or ferry would ensure that life jackets are worn at all times during the journey.

As the bill reads, the deputy commissioner shall, in general, ensure that the provisions of this Act are enforced in letter and spirit in respective tehsil and district areas.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2023