Nchiraa Waterfalls - Unrefined tourism jewel waiting to be developed
Nchiraa, a deprived farming community located about 30 kilometres from Wenchi in the Wenchi Municipality in the Bono Region, has a beautiful waterfall which remains untapped for its tourist potential.
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Wedged between the mountains of the Nchiraa community, the Nchiraa Waterfalls offer a hiking adventure on a rocky and challenging footpath to the fall.
Visitors have to be daring enough to travel the steep rocky path to get to the bottom of the valley where the water falls, as weeds have taken over the entire site.
The beautiful unrefined tourism jewel has other natural and cultural tourism activities within 10 kilometres radius, which makes a tour to the place exciting.
History
History has it that, in the early 2000s, a hunter identified as Kofi Asiama, during hunting, discovered the waterfall, which is about two kilometres into the forest.
During his leisure time with his colleagues at a drinking spot, he gave the account of his expeditions, depicting an attractive waterfall site he saw in the bush.
Some residents who had had a waterfall experience, decided to follow the hunter to see the new discovery, which was near their community.
In 2004, Mr Asiama was said to have led members of a management committee constituted to ensure the development of the waterfalls and its chairman, Emmanuel Obour Adjei, to the site.
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The committee was charged to look for investors or find a strategic way to develop the beautiful feature into a preferred tourism destination.
However, currently, tourists have totally abandoned the site except for few people, particularly students who visit to conduct researches or are determined to see the beauty of the site.
This is notwithstanding the fact that in 2011, the celebration of World Tourism Day was held at the site in a bid to attract the attention of duty bearers, but nothing has been done since then to develop the beautiful site.
The Assemblyman of the Pramaso Electoral Area, Henry Ameworwor, told the Daily Graphic that because the site was not developed, some inhabitants had turned the vicinity of the Waterfall into a farmland where illegal activities threaten the site.
He said as a result the level of the water keeps dropping, making the waterfall lose its natural flow.
He, therefore, appealed to the residents, particularly farmers, to stop farming or carrying out human activities along the upstream of the falls to protect it from drying up.
"I have been receiving calls from people, including churches and associations, who call to tell me they saw the falls on the Internet and want to visit the site, but I keep telling them the site has not been developed and it will be a disappointment if they come," he said.
Government's effort
Mr Ameworwor said successive governments had made promises to develop the beautiful tourist site for the benefit of the people and the country's tourism industry, but they had not fulfilled their promises.
He said though various government delegations had visited the site occasionally, they were still waiting for the site to be developed to enable them to benefit from the natural endowment.
Mr Ameworwor said the current Wenchi Municipal Chief Executive, Alexander Obour Damoah, had directed him to establish a committee to look for investors to develop the site, which he was currently working on.
He said since the discovery of the site, no investment had been made to develop the falls, except in 2019 when the Nchiraa community, in collaboration with some investors, attempted to develop the site, but failed along the line.
He said the community and its partners also gathered trips of sand and moulded some blocks to construct walkways from the upstream to the waterfalls, adding that currently weeds had taken over the entire project after it was abandoned.
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