Kintampo Fall deaths: No lessons learnt from past disasters

The tragic incident that occurred at the Kintampo Waterfalls resulting in the death of 18 people shows that the country has taken no leaf from previous accidents, Dr Kobby Mensah, a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, has stated.

Out of the 18 people who lost their lives, 15 of them were students from the Wenchi Methodist Senior High School.

Commenting on this development on his Facebook page, Dr Mensah noted that last year, a similar incident occurred in other recreational areas in the country which should have prompted authorities to institute measures to prevent the occurrence, but that had apparently not been done.

He said: “Tragic moment for us as Ghanaians! Some people have gone to Kintampo waterfalls as tourists only to lose their lives. So sad! My condolences to the bereaved family, and I ask God to keep our departed in His bosom. But as a tourism scholar, I have been asking myself questions since the news broke, in the early hours of the incident and had to call some few in authority for confirmation and also follow-up. The response was swift and encouraging. My question, though, was that for how long shall we do the same thing and expect different results? Sometime last year, I think we had a similar incident where a canopy walkway of one of the destinations (not Kakum) came down. Since that incident, what lessons did we draw and how did we seek to prevent it from happening again? Also, how are our institutions partnering, working together for the betterment of our systems?

“I spoke of fragmented systems and efforts when I appeared on Class91.3FM show, World Affairs, hosted by my good buddy Dr Etse Sikanku on Friday just gone. The consensus amongst those of us on the show was that there were too many fragments of effort from different institutions handling the same thing and trying to achieve similar results.

“Till today, we don’t know we have alert systems at our destinations and at what level of natural effects such as rainfall must we kick on that system. For example, what amount of rainfall at Cape Coast and its surroundings must activate safety concerns for Kakum for us to close it down, or issue special instructions for tourists and workers in order that we can prevent disasters such as this? How do we liaise with each other as institutions to ensure effectiveness? How is GTA working with Ghana meteorological services (at a fee) to provide them essential services such as weather effects? How is the work of Ghana Fire Service integrated into the services of the tourism industry? How does this tragedy impact on our effort towards tourism generally, including domestic tourism that we seriously want to promote? And many other questions that when I meet the officials I will ask.”

credit: classfmonline