Every person sailing on waters of rivers, lakes, seas and oceans has one risky thing coming to his/her mind-drowning anytime. The first thing every right thinking person sailing on water bodies should do is to wear a life jacket.

How possible is it to float on lake or sea water?

In the East African Community, many fatal boat accidents occur every year between July and October due to strong winds that occur during that time. But the acting Commissioner for Marine in Uganda Police, Patrick Lawot says that any person managing a water vessel carrying passengers the police will find between July and October without life saving gadgets will be arrested and charged.

The strong winds can even sometimes break boats and kill passengers. In Uganda, all people sailing on water bodies have to carry whistles which they blow to make alerts for rescue in case of boat accidents and at the same time put on life jackets.

Also every boat in Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania and Rwanda among other African countries must have an arch that can be used to keep the boat in one position if the weather and or the wind is bad. The boat managers must also carry floaters in their boats that can be used when there is a water accident on water.

In case of water accidents, the life jackets keep a person who doesn’t know to swim floating on water for more than two days. A person who can’t swim and has no life jackets drowns within six minutes.