Safety First

Maritime tragedy looms over Maldivian news headlines at roughly the same time every year. The changing of the seasons, and the worsening of storms bring about risky journeys and the few, but mounting in total, heartbreaking accidents that cost the lives of family members. While no one is to blame for the violent weather, safety precautions sometimes mean the difference between life and death.

The Maldives is unique in more ways than one, and this includes the daily commuting practices as well. While the bridge has been a welcome ease in the commute between Malé, Hulhulé and Hulhumalé, the ferry service that has been in operation for decades is still running. The weekly trips taken by some hardy individuals between Malé and the rest of the atolls and vice versa are commonplace and can even be considered a part of the daily lives of many. 

Given how land transport occurs on roads that are congested, narrow, and extremely short comparatively, helmet regulations had been non-existent until the bridge came into use. Transport safety regulations have historically been banked on personal responsibility and speed limits, as well as the occasional police checkpoints. Road worthiness certifications are required while the roads are still barely worthy enough to drive on. Parking fines are arguably the biggest source of government income in a cityscape where legal parking spaces are grossly inadequate, with the city council building a few ground floor parking spaces only as a quick fix for what they claim to be low budget restrictions. 

Yet, even before parking spaces became inadequate, maritime travel was always a part of Maldivian lifestyle. How safety has evolved over time is a matter that requires a bit more attention, however.

It took the tragic loss of an entire family of travellers in 2019 for the administration to bring up the importance of wearing lifejackets during travel. Minister of Transport, Aishath Nahula had very strongly urged a revision to the laws, and the newly minted Transport Authority reacted with a gazetted announcement. As they should. The public heaved a collective sigh of relief, feeling that seafaring was going to improve in safety standards after centuries.

However, two years down the line, with statistics of fatalities, and near fatalities on the rise, unabated, there is still no law.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih started off his tenure with the personality of a highly empathetic leader, not shy to shed a tear in the face of disasters, to let the people know that he felt their pain. Yet, with the recent week of absolutely devastating storms, repeated news of maritime accidents affecting not only livelihoods but human lives in the most direct way possible, his emotions seem quite muted. This brings to the forefront the attitude, under the facade, of this administration towards public safety, and it revolves around the word ‘reactionary’.

Obviously, there is a huge part of personal responsibility upon the shoulders of the travellers as well as the captains and owners of the vessels, yet this is no excuse for the administration to brush off their responsibilities. These include not only acknowledging the issue, but also bringing actual, viable changes, and then enforcing those changes.

Accidents due to lax safety regulations have been occurring over several administrations now. These include the absolutely devastating loss of a child’s life due to the carelessness of a construction project, to the largest fire in recent history in Malé due to the buildup of dangerous, highly flammable chemicals stored in a residential area in the midst of public complaints, and now the seafaring disasters that led to the loss of life due to lack of life-jacket enforcement. Other than ‘quick-fixes’, is the government really unwilling to play hardball with the corporates and the public to enforce safety-first?

Let us also remember how, during May of 2021, the Maldives experienced the dreaded second wave of COVID-19. While there are multiple reasons for this explosion in cases and the extensive list of fatalities, the entire public knows for a fact that this happened due to the local council elections. ‘Quick-fixes’ like blatantly going against HPA’s advice and allowing quarantine and test-free travelling for campaigning, conducting voting in barely socially distant situations, and presenting elections volunteers to the public with little to no precautions, it is obvious this was a grievous overreach by the administration.

When the death tolls rose, President Solih conducted an emergency press-conference online — this time there were no tears, there was no apology. He instead chose to blame the public, stating that the people themselves were dodging HPA restrictions, congregating and going on trips. Not a single mention of the council elections that had happened barely a week and half before.

With the recent violent weather, multiple lives have been lost. What really is going to be the ‘quick-fix’ by the Solih Administration this time?

Back to the matter at hand, life-jacket enforcement needs to be legally binding rather than a gazetted announcement from two years ago. Standards in sea travel need to be raised drastically, as one of the most heartbreaking accidents involved a mother and her two children actually getting knocked off their speedboat when it crashed into a wave — no doubt recovery efforts at the least would have had drastically better chances had they been in jackets.

Incidents like this cannot be allowed to continue; where maritime travel is a daily task, where every trip should be considered a liability without stricter safety codes that are enforced to the letter.

While the President spends his time travelling between islands and meeting communities, commenting on the standards of locally grown chilli, the nation awaits impatiently for strong leadership, capable of addressing the most immediate problems being faced today. Attention needs to be given for the tourist transfer issues arising from flight cancellations, rather than shifting the burden onto service providers. Attention needs to be given to the safety of seafaring, transport vessels. Attention needs to focus on protecting lives rather than projecting a facade of empathy.