The Kintampo Waterfall has been closed down indefinitely Acting Regional Manager of the Brong Ahafo Tourism Board, Mr. Joseph Appiagyei has disclosed.
The closure comes on the back of a disaster which took the lives of twenty students and left thirty individuals with several degrees of injuries.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Daybreak Upper East, Mr. Appiagyei said the closure is to give the Minister of Tourism the space to present to Parliament an LI which will regulate and ensure safety measures at tourist sites to avert disasters.
“After the Ministry of tourism, REGSEC, Tourism Board, NADMO and the Municipal Assembly met, we have decided to close the place down indefinitely. We want to license all the tourists’ sites in Ghana to ensure that the safety of tourist is held in high esteem. The Minister intends sending an LI to Parliament so that they will give us the legal backing to ensure that tourist sites are safe for the tourist.”
The Tourism board manager, however, disclosed that tour guides are not recruited that by the tourism authority but rather by the local planning committee of the district assembly.
“We don’t recruit tour guides for the tourist sites. All we do is to provide training for them after they have been recruited by the local committee
Although there were reports that the Kintampo waterfalls was managed by NPP’s invincible forces, he mentioned that he could not confirm because upon his arrival to the site he saw the presence of all the people he knows are handlers of the place.
He was, however, optimistic that the waterfalls and other tourist sites in the country will be a safe haven for all tourists after Parliament has approved the Ministry’s LI which regulate and ensure safety measures at tourist sites to avert disasters.
By: Offei-Akoto Ayeh/a1radioonline.com/Ghana
