I found this saddening,frighten almost surreal report from the daily
observer today and thought it might be of interest to all concerned
Gambians. This kind of scenario was once mentioned by one Musa jeng in his
posting regarding the dilemma of river transportation capabilities. I for
one, contributed my lack of trust or the incompatibleness of the so called
GPTC under the management one mr. brilliant profit-maker. my question is ,
when will the GPTC wake up to the plight of the ordinary Gambians as a
whole, by providing them with adequate, secured and reliable means of
transportation. When will the GPTC or should i dare say KPTC: kombo public
transportation corporation, decentralised it's operations and obligations to
the whole dimensions of transportation medium for the ordinary gambians.

The innocent victims of these and similar disasters to come will only be on
the increase if this impotent and malfunctioned public infrastructure is not
straighten and remodelled to the proper aspiration of the ordinary Gambian
needs.How much investment is needed by the authorities to avoid such
unwanted and unnecessary event from taking place? not much compared to the
lavish lifestyle being maintained by the upper echelon of our society.
Instead of the brand new pajeros, mansions and god knows what new trend of
cars are in fashion today costing million of dollars,the ordinary gambian
could have been provided with much better improvised mode of transportation
than dying on daily basis prematurely.

Kittos
Peter

The report reads as:

Kaur boat disaster
The Kaur weekly market day "Lumo" of Thursday, August
26, was a gloomy one for the people of Kaur, Niaminas. At
about 10am, reports of a boat disaster at the river, claiming
more than thirty lives, were making the rounds like wild fire..
I arrived in the town by 12:30pm and was greeted with the tragic news.
People from Kaur
Janneh Kunda and the surrounding villages thronged the streets leading to
Kaur Wharf
Town.

I first visited the Kaur Police Station where I spoke to ASP Ebrima Njie,
and station
officer Sergeant Saloum Njie, before proceeding to join the rescuers at the
river side.

Already, three bodies had been removed from the river by the head of the
local rescue
team, Boto Sonko, captain of a canoe plying the Kulenia-Kaur river stretch.
The first
three bodies to be found were girls under the ages of ten.

Ten others, rescued or who made it to the shore were hospitalised: four of
them,
including a police officer, first class constable 634, Malang Jarju of
Dankunku Police Post
and his wife were admitted at the Farafenni Hospital, while the reamaining
six,  including
the captain of the outboard canoe which  capsized, Njanko Conteh, were
admitted at the
Kaur Health Center.

Five other survivors, who had minor injuries went to the Kaur Police Station
to give
statements. They included a State Guard,  Biran Ngett,  Alpha Omar Jallow of
Niamina
Kang Bamba, Madi Ngett of Sareh Layen, Ousman Sanneh of Sarreh Fula, and
Mbye
Sallah of Kaur Uldeh.

On the same day, several people went to the Kaur Police Station to register
the names of
relatives who were believed to have boarded the canoe and were missing.
Within five
hours, the police had received fifteen names of missing relatives.

Among those declared missing were four people from Bantanto: Gallas Fye,
Musu-Nding
Manneh, Dem Penda and Kumba Kortah; six people from Kerr Badou Jobe village:
Abdou Touray, Malick Loum, Harlie Touray, Ebrima Lowe, Incha Njie and
Momodou
Lowe. Also declared missing were Musa Bah of Kerr Jabel, Alieu Sidibeh of
Lee Kunda,
Sainabou Fye of Sareh Fula, Abdou Mbye of Niamina Tamba and Labba Suso of
Sareh
Layen.

Some of the goods on board the old canoe were recovered. They included sacks
of bitter
tomatoes

and a motor cycle. The canoe and its engine were also recovered almost
intact, except for
the loose plank which left a narrow opening on the deck.

Reports gathered from commuters who arrived after the incident by the
Jarreng-Kaur
ferry indicated that they had followed the canoe which "was overloaded until
it
disappeared from sight. Bags of foodstuff and other materials were first
seen floating on
the river by one Mr Sanyang, who is in charge of the Kaur GPMB. He reported
the matter
to the police at about 10:20am.

Asked about the number of passengers an board, the captain of the ill-fated
canoe
Njanko Conteh, a well known canoe man in the area, initially gave
conflicting figures to
the police, but finally said it was about 40.

However, some of the survivors intimated that the passengers were more than
40, and
that the canoe was carrying "heavy luggage".

Latest figures ascertained 41 passengers were on board the boat.

An elderly man, watching the rescue operation, observed, "at least the two
luwa kanta
lalu (security officers) on board should have cautioned the captain sweet.
As it was a
'lumo' day, the captain would just load as much as he could to earn more
money."

A young man, Lamin Baldeh, suggested that there should be "stick law
requiring all
transport operators to issue tickets to passengers all over the country-be
it by sea or
road. When this is the case, the number of people involved in similar
disasters will be
known, and we will not be sitting here guessing like we are doing today."

Some people in the communities picked on the GPTC. They said the
Kaur-Jarreng ferry is
"too old" for that long river distance of more than 13 miles. The seemingly
dangerous
ferry was found almost fully loaded with passengers and baggage and no
protective gear
was visible on deck.

One woman complained that river transport system in the area was "risky. We
want the
authorities to help us. The Jarreng-Batti (Upper Saloum) river stretch is
also said to be
dangerous as the boats plying the distance are always overcrowded..



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