James Sowole
The Hydro Professional Group of the Nigeria Institution of Surveyors (NIS) has called on the federal government to establish National Hydrography Commission to cater for gathering and management of data and policies in the maritime sector of the country.
The Coordinator of the Hydropro Group of the NIS, Mr. Olumide Omotoso, reiterated the call in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while speaking on the occasion of the 2022 World Hydrography Day.
The theme for the Year 2022 celebration was, “Hydrography: Contributing to the United Nations Ocean Decades.”
Omotoso, who said Nigeria was long overdue for the establishment of the National Hydrographic Office, noted that there cannot be meaningful development in the nation’s maritime sector unless there was an office where stakeholders in the industry could collaborate and exchange data and ideas based on survey and research.
According to Omotoso, Hydrography offices are established in all maritime nations to cater for both military and civilian needs.
He said, “Hydrographers gather data from the civil and the military areas. Both the military and the civilian will work together. All data that are related to water bodies are harnessed in that office.
“In such office, we have the military layout of information and the public domain information that is assessed in facilitating policies in aiding decision making.
“With the office, our lives are better in planning so that in flooding, in seabed monitoring around the coastline will be better monitored and managed properly.
“If we set up that office, both the military and the civil components and all the other stakeholders including the Nigeria Ports Authority, Nigeria Inland Waterways, NIMASA, all the people in the oil and gas industry, the dredging company and everybody that is participating in anything that is maritime will then bring their data to that house that will work like the central bank.
“In that office, we keep data, we manage data, we choose data for research purposes, for prediction, for modelling, just like what the NIMET is doing. If we don’t do that, how do we predict what will happen in the ocean.
“If NIMET exists, then we should have the Nigeria Hydrographic Office, giving data to keep the Maritime Sector. Without that, you can’t plan anything in the maritime sector.
“Hydrographers are the one that tells you everything that is inside the water. Nobody sees under water so this office will be established where all the stakeholders will collaborate and it is a civil society.
“The military will bring their data and we bring our own under the National Hydrographic Office and where everybody is contributing. Security is for the Navy’s purpose while the civil is for public domain.
“So we need a platform for collaboration among stakeholders and to be headed by a civilian. In the UK Hydrographic Office and other nations like United States that is what they do. We need the National Hydrographic Office in Nigeria. We do not have one yet.
“People confuse the Hydrographer of the Navy with the National Hydrographer. They are not the same thing. There should be a National Hydrographer that takes care of everybody and also the Hydrographer of the Nigerian Navy.
“The Nigerian Navy Hydrography Office is also different from the National Hydrography Office. The two have their different offices. it is when the two come together that they will collaborate in a central office for proper decision making to help the government take policy and action.”
