Although the Escravos breakwaters constructed to prevent the siltation of the Warri channels collapsed decades ago and the current Management of the Authority, led by the Managing Director, Mohammed Bello Koko, has concluded the survey and mapping of the channel and is at the conclusive stages of securing relevant approvals for the best financing option to fund its reconstruction, the Authority has put mitigants in place to ensure safe berthing of legally operating vessels in the spirit of trade facilitation.
NPA explained at the weekend that the
up-to-date local and international training, simulation, and maneuverability competence building of the highly experienced pilots of the Authority has ensured zero incidence of vessels running aground and enabled the safe berthing on Friday, July 14, 2023, of inbound vessels MT Zonda and MT Stellar and outbound vessels MT Duke, MT Vardar, and MT Igbinosa, with six (6) vessels at anchorage outbound and inbound for Bonny Island, Koko, and Escravos.
Conscious of the peculiarities of the Warri channel, the Authority procured and installed adequate buoys for Warri, realigned the entrance buoys, docked and reclassified vessels, and stipulated frequent simulation training and retraining for all the pilotage crew to enable them to respond to the exigencies of the channel.
According to NPA, the occasionally reported incidences of vessels running aground cannot impede the channel as they are vessels operating illegally without NPA Marine Pilots onboard and ran aground only because they veered off the channel and safety-marked areas due to incompetence.
To enhance its domain awareness capability to detect and frontally keep illegal vessels at bay, the Authority recently awarded consultancy for the installation of Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) across all its Port locations, and the first phase is already comple
It will be recalled that the Authority recently acquired and deployed security patrol boats and intensified its collaborations with relevant security agencies to stem the activities of such illegal vessels whose activities result in such breaches.
