Inland waterway safety a far cry

Victims of the waterway accidents are neither getting any compensation nor any redress.  At least 1,550 cases filed over waterway accidents in the country are still pending with the marine courts due to a slow process of the trial.
After such accidents the local administrations provide just the carrying cost of the dead body for burial and the government forms probe committees whose reports do not see the light of the day in a life time. Despite some committee reports suggested that 'negligence of launch drivers is responsible for the deadly waterway collisions,' and made some recommendations towards putting an end to such loss of lives these remain unimplemented.
Divers recovered 27 bodies on Monday from inside the passenger launch
'Sabit Al Hasan' launch that sank with over 50 passengers on board in the River Shitalakkhya in Narayanganj on Sunday.
Although the country witnessed no significant waterway accidents in 2019, two major accidents in the first six months of 2020 have killed 45 people with the second one taking place on June 29 that left 34 people dead.
On June 29 in 2020, an accident took place when MV Morning Bird and MV Mayur-2 collided at Farashganj Ghat near Sadarghat in the Buriganga River. Sunken Morning Bird was carrying about 60 passengers.
Police pressed charges against 11 people, including the owner of the Mayur-2 launch Mosaddek Hanif Swad, in a case filed over the launch capsize in the Buriganga River on June 29 last year that killed 34 people.
Investigation Officer (IO) of the case Sadarghat River Police Station Sub-Inspector (SI) Md Shahidul Alam submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court of Dhaka on February 23.  The IO also named 42 people as witnesses in the case.
According to Shipping Department data, 242 people died and 169 others went missing in 72 launch accidents in five years ending 2018.
Of them, 31 people were killed and 29 went missing in 17 accidents in 2018, while 37 people were killed and 21 remained missing in 15 accidents in 2017, 28 people died and seven went missing in nine accidents in 2016, 39 people died and 27 went missing in 13 accidents in 2015 and 107 people were killed and 85 went missing in 13 launch accidents in 2014, shows the data.
The country recorded the highest number of accidents in a single year in 2004 when 41 vessels, both passenger-carrying and goods-laden, capsized in different waterways in the country.
However, the most fatal year for waterways was 2003 when 464 people lost their lives, according to the department.
About the latest accident in Narayanganj on Sunday, a high official of the Department of Shipping told the Daily Observer that the accident occurred, according to primary investigation, due to negligence of the launch drivers.  If the vessel drivers become careful the number of accidents will come down, he added.