Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Evangelical Youth Alliance International has observed that the boat accident that claimed 25 lives in Gwembe should act as an eye opener on the need for government to effectively monitor water transportation in the country.
Alliance Executive Director Moses Lungu has told QFM News in an interview that Transport Minister Yamfwa Mukanga should formulate policies that will protect lives on the water.
Reverend Lungu says suggestions that government should ban the usage of banana boats for long distance journeys are not the solution to water transportation challenges.
He says what government should do is provide policy direction in terms of how people will be protected when traveling on water.
Reverend Lungu adds that government should not just end at making pronouncements, but go a step a further in safeguarding the lives of the people that use water transport.
Reverend Lungu has further encouraged Zambians to continue praying for God’s protection over the country.
And United Party for National Development (UPND) President Hakainde Hichilema has called on government to establish how the tragic accident in which 26 people mostly children died after drowning on Lake Kariba on their way for jubilee celebrations in Gwembe district.
Mr Hichilema says this is in order to avoid any similar reoccurrence in future.
Mr Hichilema says to lose such a big number of people, who are in their prime and with so much to give to the country, is a big tragedy.
He states that as the country mourns these young men and women, there is need to remember to pray for their souls, as well as pray for their families and friends that they have left behind.
Mr Hichilema has however, questioned the morality of the country’s governance systems that subject citizens to such modes of transport so many years after independence.
He says there is need to aspire for better services that will guarantee the safety and lives of people.
The UPND leader adds that those who have died should not die in vain, but that the country should use this painful experience to improve the water transport sector that puts the lives of many more Zambians in similar dangers everyday.
Mr Hichilema has further called upon government authorities to fully engage communities around the country that use water transport and sensitize them on safe methods of crossing water bodies, such as the need for life saving jackets and skills as well as on the need to rule on the numbers a boat can carry safely.