Physical And Institutional Challenges of Inland Waterways Transportation on The Calabar-Oron Corridor, South-South Nigeria.

Abstract

This paper attempts to find out the key physical and institutional challenges from this sector with the growing use and understanding of the Calabar-Oron inland waterways transportation corridor. Due to its three distinctive features such as high fuel efficiency, cost effectiveness and environment friendly, globally, the inland waterways transport continue to be an essential transport mode in any economy. While these seeming comparative advantages over other modes such as road and rail, are acknowledged, the development of the Calabar-Oron inland waterway corridor remained an elusive goal for policy makers in both states of its operation. Its potentials remained grossly underutilised due to physical and institutional constraints, which this study examined. Data was collected from 600 copies of administered research instruments (with 98% success rate) using simple random sampling techniques. Secondary data on trips was obtained from terminal operators in both Calabar and Oron locations. The hypothesis was formulated and tested using multiple regression analysis (MRA). The results of the MRA showed that there is significant effect of weather, water tide regime, poor safety enforcement, overloading and poor staff administrative style on traffic along the corridor, (N = 590, F = 17.27, r = 0.527, p< 0.05). The findings of this study concluded that identified challenges affect patronage thereby impacting negatively on some key service parameters, especially safety and security, passengers' comfort and convenience. It is recommended that adequate policy measures in the form of legislation should be passed to guarantee considerable private sector participation in the sector. Maritime security should be beefed up to enhance the safety of passengers along the inland waterway transport corridor