Safeguarding lives at our tourist sites

In the last couple of weeks, avoidable tragedies have befallen us in different parts of the country, ranging from road and waterfalls accidents to suicides.

The Kintampo Waterfalls, a renowned tourist facility at Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo Region, has been closed down indefinitely following an incident which claimed the lives of 19 revellers last Sunday.

The unfortunate incident hit the country hard, forcing the President to call for a minute’s silence when he addressed chief executive officers from various parts of the continent in Geneva, Switzerland.

A light rainfall, which was accompanied by strong winds, thunder and lightning, uprooted nearby trees which crushed the revellers, mostly students from the Wenchi Methodist Senior High School, to death.

The unfortunate incident has attracted the attention of many potential international tourists to the country, while the hopes of Ghanaians who love to explore the countryside have been completely dampened.

The Daily Graphic bemoans the reactive culture of authorities whose mandate it is to put measures in place to ensure the safety of public facilities, including tourist’s sites. We believe that the practice of moving in to fight the fire when the harm has been caused is most unacceptable and unfortunate.

We live in a country with so much tourism potential but this is not being harnessed as is the case in many other countries.

For instance, revellers who visit the Boti Falls, the Wli Waterfalls, the Kakum National Park, the Mole National Park, among other such facilities scattered across the length and breadth of the country, do so just for the fun of it because the necessary measures have not been put in place to ensure their safety and security.

In many instances, the road network is so bad that accessibility to those facilities has become a problem.

It beats us successive governments’ consistent refusal to upgrade the country’s tourism sites to rake in the much needed revenue for the accelerated development of the country and also create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth in the country.

In places such as the UAE, South Africa, Namibia and Egypt, tourism is among the first three foreign income earners and a major contributor to the Gross Domestic Product. This is because the managers of the various sites, with massive support from their respective governments, have helped put the facilities in good shape to attract tourists.

Unfortunately, in Ghana, the sector has been relegated to the background, in spite of its huge potential to rake in foreign exchange after oil, cocoa and gold.

It is time for the government to push the agencies mandated to ensure that the sector plays the role expected of it.

It is a sad commentary when, as a country, we complain of deprivation in the midst of abundant resources, including tourist sites that we can sell, in addition to our warmth and the stable democracy.

The Daily Graphic expects the government to play its role as a facilitator and ensure that private people partner the state to develop the tourist sites, so that revenue can be shared according to the equity held by each party.

We extend our sympathies to the bereaved families and wish the injured a speedy recovery. Meanwhile we pray that the disaster that has claimed innocent souls will serve as a wake-up call to all, especially public officials, to fix the challenges at all our public places to avoid these needless deaths.