Advantages and Disadvantages of Water Transport | Kinds, Types, Top 6 Water Transportation Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages and Disadvantages of water transport: Transport has always been a part of the national economy. Anything, whether goods or people can be transported from one place to another with the help of different modes of transport. We mostly depend on roadways and railways for transportation on land, boat, ships, etc for transportation on water and airplanes, helicopters, etc for transportation through air. These modes of transport can be mentioned as follows:

• Roadways
• Railways
• Airways
• Waterways

Let us look specifically at Water transport as others are most familiar to us in one or the other way.

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What is Water Transport? Advantages and Disadvantages of Water Transport 2022

When goods or people are transported over a distance on water through various means like boats, ships, submarines, etc are called Water transport. In our country, India, the progress of water transport started after 1947 I.e. after independence. And now India stands, the second position in Asia and sixth position in the whole world for water transportation facilities.

India is a peninsular nation its three sides are surrounded by water thus making it one of the best nations to use water transport facilities. It is indispensable to foreign trade as much of the trading of goods is done through waterways. Few major ports in India have been immensely popular for trading like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, paradeep, etc.

Although water transport has greatly helped in developing the economy of the nation it has few advantages as well as disadvantages too. Let us look at a few advantages and disadvantages of water transport briefly.

• Advantages of Water Transport 
• Disadvantages of Water Transport 
• Comparison Table for Advantages and Disadvantages of Water transport 
• FAQ’s on Pros and Cons of Water Transport 

Advantages of Water Transport

A few advantages of water transport are:

• It is a safer mode of transport: As compared to other means of transport water transport is considered safer as chances of accidents or disaster are less. Water transport is suitable for almost all types of organizations that want to keep their products or goods safe.
• Produces least pollution: Like any other transport facilities require fuels to run the vehicle and transport goods and people from one place to another which causes great pollution and pollute our environment, water transport generates the least amount of smoke to run boats, submarines or ships which, therefore, pollutes our environment least.
• Helps in the growth of the economy of a nation: Water transport helps the economy to grow as it helps in maintaining relations with international borders through exports which in turn helps in the growth of the nation.
• It can store more goods and materials: For a businessman, a cost-efficient transport facility would help his organization to flourish fast, thus if more goods can be stored in a single trip then the cost of transport would be reduced. This will not only reduce the expense of the organization but also product costs can be reduced.
• It’s the least expensive method of transport: Water transport is considered to be one of the cheapest transport facilities as the cost of transportation is less, more people and goods can be stored at a time thus making the charges of transport affordable.
• Also used for defense by a nation: The navy of our nation uses ships and submarines to observe each step of the enemy nation and respond accordingly. As other countries may send their intruders in other nations also through waterways thus road transport help to defend the nation from the enemy.

Disadvantages of Water Transport

A few disadvantages of water transport are

• It’s not reliable: Sometimes when there are any natural disasters or any calamity in the sea or any other water body it becomes difficult for the captain of the ship or boat to reach the goods and people to their destination on time. Thus, it’s unreliable in case of any emergency.
• Incompatible for Small organizations: Small businesses could not spend money on this transport as the goods produced by them is in small quantity and the expense or cost is not affordable many a time. Thus it’s not cost-efficient for small businesses.
• Perishable goods cannot be transported: Perishable goods get spoiled soon. As they are limited by time and water transport takes a lot of time, it’s not good to transport perishable goods from one place to another.
• Time taking or consuming: Ships and boats have very slow speed as compared to other means of transport like trains, airplanes, therefore, water transport is a time-consuming transport facility. Say if it takes 1.5 hours to reach a destination by plane then it would take 15 to 18 hours to reach the destination.
• Lack of Personalised services: There are no door-to-door services provided in the case of water transport as goods are transported in bulk to reach the main port. Thus it lacks personal attention to a customer.
• Packaging of goods must be special: Since water in the sea or ocean has continuous waves thus goods cannot stay much longer intact if the packaging is not done properly thus special packaging is required to save goods from the sudden jerks in the sea.

Comparison Table for Advantages and Disadvantages of Water transport 

Let us observe once again the advantages and disadvantages of water transport.

Advantages of water transport	Disadvantages of water transport
It is a safer mode of transport	It’s not reliable
Produces least pollution	Incompatible for Small organization
Helps in the growth of the economy of a nation	Perishable goods cannot be transported
It can store more goods and material	Time taking or consuming
It’s the least expensive method of transport	Lack of Personalised services
Also used for defense by a nation	Packaging of goods must be special

FAQ’s on Pros and Cons of Water Transport

Question 1.
What do you mean by water transport?

Answer:
Water transport refers to the movement of people and goods by ship, boat, etc across water bodies like ocean, brine, rivers, etc

Question 2.
Can perishable items be transported through water transport?

Answer:
Since there are chances of perishable items getting spoiled son thus perishable items could not be transported over a large distance by water transport.

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