Lake Chivero accident could have been prevented

worse this time is that they are broken by parents as well as by a boat operator.
Boating is not inherently safe. It takes place on water. But it can be made safer than driving on a road if all precautions are taken and all rules are followed.
All properly designed pleasure boats and dinghies, the sort of boat used on Lake Chivero, are built with watertight compartments so that they should not sink, removing one danger.
But people can fall out, and the boats can tip over, that is capsize, and throw people out. And it is just possible if the person steering the boat is really incompetent for the boat to be sailed over a rock and have its watertight compartments holed and then sink.
So there are rules, and these rules are not just common sense but are also enforced by law.
The first is that a boat cannot be overloaded. Every boat is designed for a maximum number of people and every boat licenced for hire has that maximum enforced by legal limits.
The maximums are set for safety, and cannot be exceeded even if the passengers are small children and so will fit in the boat. An overloaded boat is far more likely to capsize, and a lot of small children are likely to panic if excited and so cause a boat to capsize, by all rushing to one side for example.
Secondly, everybody on a boat is supposed to wear a lifejacket, a simple and cheap garment that is designed when worn correctly not just to keep a person floating if they fall out, but keep them floating with their head out of the water.
Even a totally unconscious person wearing a properly designed lifejacket will not drown.
All that should happen on a Zimbabwean river, lake or dam if a person falls out of a boat, or if a boat capsizes or sinks, is that they bob around in the water until rescued. That is not a pleasant experience, but it is not a fatal one.
Experienced sailors know this and always wear life-jackets, even if they are good swimmers. Most sailing clubs insist on this rule and disqualify contestants in a sailing race who are not wearing a life-jacket, even if their only other garment is a pair of trunks.
Special safety precautions are taken for competitive rowing and lake canoeing; participants have to be able to swim a kilometre fully dressed and a safety boat has to be on the water for every practice and every event. The point is that those who spend a lot of time on the water know the dangers and make sure everyone is safe.
Anyone who has gone out on a lake with an experienced sailor, such a friend taking you fishing or just for a spin, knows how such people operate. They tell you not to move around; they make you put on a life-jacket; they tell you what to do if you do fall out.
So it is inexplicable why a boat owner or boat operator, taking ordinary members of the public out on a pleasure cruise, does not follow common sense, let alone follow the legal rules.
We hope that as a result of this latest tragedy there will be a full investigation and that criminal proceedings will be initiated. There seems to be a prima facie case for charges of culpable homicide since such deaths are so easy to avoid.
It is difficult to enforce the legal rules, we agree. While those in charge of large boats for hire have to pass exams and are in any case professionals, almost anyone can take a few friends out for a trip on a small private boat.
So efforts must be stepped up to educate the potential passengers.
Lake Chivero’s access roads make this easy.
National Parks control the south shore, with its single entrance, and most of the private north shore is reached by a single road off the main highway.
Huge notices can be erected at these entrances, warning people of the dangers and telling them that, legally, they must wear a life-jacket if they go out on the water. Similar notices can be erected at all harbours and jetties. Some jetty owners already do this.
Similar notices are needed at all other recreational parks and all other water areas open to the public. Where possible gates into dams and lakes should be manned and verbal warnings given at the same time that the entrance fee is paid.
Of course, you will still get some passengers, and some boat owners, who break the rules, even when they know them. So we do need some inspections, even if it just a single police boat or National Parks boat, making an occasional patrol.
The patrols need to be backed with legal force that will mean any boat owner breaking a serious safety rule, such as overloading or not making all passengers wear life jackets, loses their boat and will be banned from owning another one, at least for several years. So long as the risk is there, even if enforcement is very intermittent, boat owners will be far more reluctant to break the rules.
As usual after one of these tragedies everyone will be aware and be on their best behaviour for the next few months, before slacking off again.
So let us this time use these few months of increased awareness to make sure all going on the water know the safety rules and to work out ways, with the limited resources open to the police and National Parks, to improve enforcement of the most needed safety rules.