We Must Work Together For The Safety Of Kintampo Waterfalls And Other Tourist Sites

The death of 18 students of Wenchi Methodist Senior High School who were on an excursion at the Kintampo Water Falls is considered extraordinary. For that matter it has shaken the very foundation of the nation and beyond. Not only families of the dead students were stunned by the tragedy that occurred through a falling tree as the students were enjoying the water falls, people high and low in the nation have expressed and continue to express sadness over the tragedy.

The President of Ghana Nana Akufo Addo, his Vice Dr. Mahmoud Bawumia, the former President John Mahama and their wives jumped into the fray by expressing their condolences and the offer of support for the affected families towards medical care of the injured and burial of the dead.

The reason for this show of sympathy by the whole nation hinges on the fact that this is the first time that as many as 18 students have lost their lives while on excursion at a tourist site and not through motor accident.

While some traditionalists have blamed the occurrence on unholy activities that offended the gods of the river others attribute the sad happenings to lack of good maintenance culture in our tourist sites and for that matter important establishments in Ghana including the water falls. The Kintampo Water Falls being a natural site is one of the oldest sites which is said to have seen little or no facelift with very little attention given by the tourist guards to those visitors to the site.

Although the authorities have ordered the closure of the Kintampo water falls for enquiry to be made on it for the time being, a lot more needs to be done to improve on it in future. There is the need for an immediate step to embark on a face lift of the site to ensure safety standards.

Being a water fall surrounded by a river and trees an audit is needed to determine the ages of the trees with the view to cutting down the matured ones’. Being a tourist site excursions and visits are to be permitted. But students should be allowed to go there for site seeing and not be allowed to swim in the river close by. All Ghanaians are naturally sad about what happened to our students at Kintampo.

Since all the political parties and their leaders have a common stand over the unfortunate happening in kintampo we should not attribute the death of the students to any political party or deity. All we have to do is to work together to avoid the recurrence of what happened at kintampo in any part of the country in future.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
eanfoworld for sustainable development
[email protected]/[email protected]