An Analysis of Accidents in the Inland Waterways of Bangladesh: Lessons from a Decade (2005-2015)

The Inland Water Transportation (IWT) system of Bangladesh is one of the most significant modes of transportation for being easily accessible and less expensive. Though Bangladesh own geographical benefit of having a huge inland waterway network but there are severe safety deficiencies in this sector. This study has analyzed the data of accidents that took place during 2005 to 2015 in the inland waterways of Bangladesh. Accident data were collected from the Department of Shipping (DOS) of Bangladesh. The accidents has been analyzed according to different variables such as vessel types, location of accidents, time distribution of accidents, final condition of vessels after the occurrence of accidents and others. A total of 229 accidental cases were considered for the study. The Geographical Information System (GIS) is applied for identifying the most vulnerable locations and waterway routes for waterway accidents on the basis of frequency of the occurrence of accidents. The analysis revealed that the major causes of waterway accidents are collision, Nor’wester or storm, overloading, stability failure, excessive current, bottom damage. The analysis shows that cargo vessels and passenger vessels are facing more accidents compared to other types of vessels. It was also observed that many accidents and relevant information often remain unreported. Moreover, the recorded waterway accident data are also not much informative for conducting standard research works. Finally, some recommendations are put forward with a vision to build up a safer waterway transportation system for Bangladesh and for further research and investigations.