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If you want to get involved, click here to contact the Project Leader
About the Technology used:

The project uses UPN (Unique Positioning Number) technology for incident management. In essence, information boards with unique numbers are placed at strategic pionts. Should an incident happen, the number can be send via a text message (SMS) to the SMS number also on the board. The text message is then relayed to all the relevant roleplayers responsible for water safety at that specific dam or waterway. The unique number assists the emergency and other services to know the exact location of the incident.

This technology has great potential for community safety in areas such as informal settlements where houses and roads are not always well demarcated and numbered, making it very difficult for emergency services to reach a household.

UPN		  
What is the project about?

This project aims to develop an inland maritime monitoring & incident management solution to promote recreational water safety and caring for the environment. The primary focus of the solution is vessel safety but the solution have great potential to address a number of other government priorities.

It is a solution driven by a partnership between the community and government. The aim is to enhance the development of best practise habits that will in turn create a safe and structured inland maritime culture. This will be done through a phased roll-out of the model to dams & rivers and communities in South Africa.

Why is it important?

The regulations regarding vessel safety as compiled by SAMSA is there to prevent un-safe vessels and skippers. These regulations however are worthless unless it's enforced and monitored. The Inland Maritime Model aims to monitor these regulations as a preventive measure against incidents but also to be sufficient reactive should there be an incident. Key words are ground-level actions that are simple, implementable and sustainable.

It will also be short sighted to not address a bigger picture and to not include regulations that impacts on the inland maritime environment as a whole e.g. regulations from environmental affairs, water affairs, conservation, etc. The model aims to create a single point of inland maritime information for the public, thus promoting user-friendly accessibility and empowerment. The main aim is user-friendly transparency.

Government expects participants in the inland maritime environment to pay all kinds of taxes and fees. The question is what does government provide back to the public. With this model the intention is to first prevent incidents but also to ensure that where possible, incidents on water are attended to in a quick but coordinated and professional manner. Thus creating a safe environment for the public.

The test model at Boskop Dam has exposed major shortcomings in the rural incident management situation in South Africa with public-to-emergency services communication being one of the big short comings. The solutions the model provides are simple, cost effective, sustainable but most of all effective and efficient. It does it without re-inventing any wheel but by taking current services and technology and structuring it in such a way that it saves lives. The one benefit that must not be overlooked is that this model can form the basis for saving lives at other environments of South Africa e.g. townships, universities, etc.

With the intended pilot projects the first small steps are taken to create small safety islands that can form the basis for further growth. The best approach is to start doing something positive rather than to wait and hope something will be done.

With this model in place a sound foundation is laid for development of inland maritime activities not only to get more people involved thus creating bigger commercial opportunities but also to help with safe guarding our water against pollution and other factors that might put our most important resource at risk.

 

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Team members:

Johan-Matthy Greyling Dept of Transport (chairperson)
Danny Talhami SAIS; Bronkhorstspruit Dam
Dave Colly SAMSA – Cape Town
Brig. Merriam Selemela SAPS
Capt. LC Jansen van Vuuren SAPS
Walther van der Westhuizen Dept of Water Affairs
Nico Louw EMRS College
Thulani Hlope SAMSA - Pretoria
Henriette Anderson Dept of Water Affairs
Michael Kriel Dept of Water Affairs
Steven Nhlabathi Dept of Water Affairs
Lt.Col. J.A. Scheepers SAPS
Capt. Francis Chilalika SAMSA - Inland
James Collocott SAMSA – Navigation Aids
Emelang Malefo North West Parks Tourism
Pierre Schoonraad Centre for Public Service Innovation

Task management:

National Tasks
o A1: SAMSA Regulations & fines
o A2: SAMSA Agencies
o A5: Implement DWA Buoyage system
o A7: Provide any other DWA maritime regulations
o A8: Dept of Environmental Affairs Regulations & fines
o A9: Dept of Nature Conservation Regulations & fines
o B2: Design Inland Maritime member board
o B3: Compile Wash-Bay specifications
o B4: Compile Gatekeeper Tag system
o B6: Compile Spot point board & sticker specifications
o C1: Compile an Inland Maritime Peace Officer course
o D1: Identify the incident SMS communication system
o D2: Develop JOC procedure
o D3: Compile Event Management procedure
o E1: Compile Inland Maritime Guides