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.. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------