DAR ES SALAAM, Oct. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- A regional maritime authority has warned that passengers on Lake Victoria face a risk of poor life-saving mechanism, urging the African countries sharing the lake to establish an essential rescue system.

    Tanzanian newspaper The Citizen on Thursday quoted a survey conducted by the East African Secretariat for Maritime Affairs (EASMA) as saying that the safety of passengers and cargoes in the world's second largest freshwater lake is severely threatened by the lack of rescue gears and related weather forecasts, by the useof outdated navigational hydrographic charts and of conflicting maritime legislation among the three countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania that share the lake.

    The report noted that maritime accidents have been rising in the past decades whereas no search or rescue center has been set up to ensure immediate and professional response.

    An earlier survey conducted by the Tanzanian government also showed that most vessels plying on the lake lack essential life-saving equipment.

    For instance, at least 185,000 quality life vests are needed for vessels operating on the Tanzanian side of Lake Victoria alonebut only 15,000 vests have been supplied by the government due to financial reasons.

    The EASMA survey urged the three countries to work out a uniform mechanism to ensure search and rescue operations with adequate rescue gears, formal radio communications, daily weather forecasts, accordant maritime rules, and updated hydrographic charts of the lake.

    Covering 67,400 square km, Lake Victoria has been a famed tourist resort but also a place where navigational accidents occurfrom time to time.

    In 1996 a Tanzanian vessel with over 600 passengers sank in Lake Victoria, claiming 500 lives, and it took three days for rescue teams from South Africa to arrive at the scene. Enditem