True, mass tragedy is a part of Bangladesh life. Unfortunately as the scale of tragedies -- both man-made and natural -increased during the last seven years, so did our apathy, both before and after the accidents on the highways, fire incidents in factories and launch disasters in the river routes. They were mostly all preventable.

IN a country that stumbles upon calamity. mostly man-made, with unerring regularity and embraces disaster with disturbing stoicism, death's sting has long been blunted. For

disaster-prone Bangladesh, the blows came in quick succession. MV Coco-4, carrying about 2,500 passengers on board - - almost three times its carrying capacity - capsized in the Tentulia river near Bhola. The death toll was 87 at the last count. The most poignant part of the tragedy is that efforts to drag the launch from the bed of the river in this lean winter season, when the river was not flowing in full fury, failed even after several days of trying.

Before the nation could recover from the shock and grief of the tragedy at Bhola. a trawler-launch collision tragedy place in the Daira river at Kishoreganj district, killing 47.

It has become spectacularly evident that human factors, like indifference and greed of launch owners, the incompetence of launch drivers and tendency to flout navigational rules have heightened the scale of tragedies. People might recall the tragic account given by the survivors of the launch MV Raipura that sank in 2005 near Aricha ghat. It was learnt that the master driver of the launch was not on the launch on that fateful night and his assistant was operating the launch.

In the case of MV Coco-4 tragedy, several factors like overloading, boarding of passengers from unauthorised places, altercation of the crew members over fares at Nazirpur terminal, and subse-

quent closure of the exit gate by the crew members created panic among the pas sengers. In the melee, as the passengers tried to get off over the side of a launch, it lost equilibrium and sank. The fact that has now been revealed is that Coco-4 was plying in spite of the directive for pu tting a solid ballast weighing about 8 tons in the lower part of the vessel for maintaining balance.

Launch disasters are not anything new in this country, especially in the Chandpur, Bari sal, Patuakhali and Bhola routes in the monsoon season. People still recall with shock the painful memories of MV Salahuddin -2 that was heading towards Patuakhali and sank in the river Meghna on May 3, 2002, and took a toll of about 363 lives. People could hardly get over the shock and trauma of this tragedy when another launch disaster in the river Baleshwar claimed 100 lives. Ttagically, during the last one decade, about 10,000 people met a watery death for no fault of theirs and for reasons that could be attributed to faulty design of the vessels and overloading.

With sophistication and innovation in vessel construction hard to come by, the riverine districts in the country weathered disaster one after disaster, and hundreds of people died in the most shocking and painful manner.

Sadly true, despite the fact that the country lurched from one catastrophe to another in the last seven years, all these deaths and disasters could neither sensitise the past government nor even jolt the present administration to action. The problem is not of resources, but of leadership. motivation and political will. And

because these arc appallingly missing, the country has been gripped by disasters one after another.

All these disasters, which have almost become an annual event, reinforce our belief that there is something awfully wrong in the whole system of administration in the country, especially in the inland water transportation sector. Sadly, while some 10,000 people met watery graves in the last decade, and the past governments as a routine work formed probe committees one after another, precious little was done in this sector. Knowing how the bureaucracy in this country looks after itself, it is not surprising that those who let people down have not only not been punished but have also kept their jobs.

The ministry concerned and its most important wing BIWTA have unmistakably failed to check the river fitness of the launches plying across the waterways of the southern part of the country that assume monstrous shape during monsoon season. Shockingly, the officials concerned in the inland water transportation sector have been totally indifferent to the anarchy prevailing in the river transport sector.

There are reports galore that surveyors are issuing vessel fitness certificates in exchange of kickbacks. Sadly true, law enforcement agency and officials in the BIWTA closed their eyes to the carrying capacity of the vessels, defects in the construction of the vessels, and placement of solid ballast in the lower part of the vessel. Whatever the cost factor, no launch should be allowed to cruise mighty rivers Like the Padma, Jamuna or Meghna without the number of buoys tallying with the number of passengers on board.

Reports say that at present about 8,500 river vessels are plying on the waters of the country with fake fitness certificates, but the number of vessels now plying far outnumbers those recorded in the register. Moreover, it is now known that fitness certificates are issued by two surveyors only, although the number approved by the ministry is 16.

Undeniably true, riverine vessels are now death traps. The killer vessels plying across the water routes, operated by callous and untrained drivers, account for more deaths than any other cause. Admittedly, it is the total flouting of navigational regulations, lack of operational skill and recklessness of drivers that lead to watery graves. The lack of fear is directly linked to weak laws and lack of deterrents. In reality, driving license for river transports is like a license to kill.

With rescue work coming to a halt and programs for innovation and improvement plagued by familiar inefficiency and callousness, the shipping minister will need all the political and administrative acumen to extricate himself from the fallout of the two recent disasters. He will have to dispel an impression that he is not the most suitable man for this exacting job. The people's concern is otherwise. They want to know if he can work as a relentless crusader against the sloth and corruption that bedevil the IWTA sector.

In popular perception all these disasters during the last decade are being blamed on the government's indulgence to unscrupulous vessel builders as well as sarengs' lack of skill and over-riding nonchalance to navigational rules. Undoubtedly true, safety norms for river navigation have been compromised.

In view of die colossal loss of human lives and alarming frequency of disasters the present government, making a salient departure from past practices, must without further delay enforce mandatory provision of marine and passenger insurance before floating a vessel on the river. The measure will automatically discourage extra loading of passengers and unhealthy competition in the form of syndicates in the river routes.

It has been pointed out by the chief engineer of BIWTA that vessels measuring 35 m to 42 m in length should never be three storied as it leads to imbalance of the vessel because of the incompatibility with upper load vs shorter length at the bottom of the vessel as well as non-submersibility of the vessel body.

True, mass tragedy is a part of Bangladesh life. Unfortunately as the

scale of tragedies -- both man-made and natural - increased during the last seven years, so did our apathy, both before and after the accidents on the highways, fire incidents in factories and launch disasters in the river routes. They were mostly all preventable. Yet, we never learned our lessons. In any case, we were inured to the sight of human suffering and death and so cyclones, floods and all forms of disasters diminished and devastated us in their power and fury.

Ever since the present shipping minister took office and launch disasters claimed hundreds of lives, he has been making noises about his intention of putting safer launches in the river routes and bringing those found guilty in the river transportation sector to book for violation of safety norms. But with hundreds of people meeting a watery grave even in the non-monsoon season, there is little hope that he can rise to the expectation of the people.

Most launch owners are primarily politi-

cians and then businessmen, and they hold substantial clout in the politics of the country. And in the corridors where politics is played, the shipping minister would rather not walk. Officials in the shipping ministry have been talking about procuring salvage vessels that are most modem and technically advanced. Evidently, those ships would be needed after a vessel has sunk. But saving lives before the accident or disaster is crucial and must take precedence over anything else.

People are inclined to believe that all these accidents have taken place because of shoddy construction and faulty design of vessels, and corrupt practices resorted by a section of the officials and launch owners. The question that necessarily strikes the public mind is: shouldn't someone be trying to punish the officials and vessel owners who closed their eyes to what was going on?

Md Asadullah Khan is a (ormer teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET