THE tragic accident involving student revelers at the Kintampo Waterfalls at Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana last Sunday is horrendous, absolutely regrettable. Never again.
According to the story, which has captured the headlines of almost all media houses this week, on separate missions, students from both the Wenchi Methodist Senior High School and the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) at Fiapre, both in the Brong Ahafo Region, were coincidentally at the resort at the same time for pleasure.
While there, strong winds, thunder and lightning which accompanied some light rainfall in the Kintampo area that Sunday afternoon caused some big trees near the waterfalls to be uprooted, thus trapping some of the revelers in the pool of water. So far, 21 people have been reported dead as a direct result of the accident while many more have been hospitalised with various degrees of injuries.
The information put out so far from sources close to the Wenchi Methodist SHS indicates that their students were on an approved school excursion and that they visited other sites in the northern part of the country before stopping at the waterfalls on the last day of their school trip. Not much has been put in the public domain about the mission of the students from UENR even though reports have it that the University’s bus was seen outside the site at the time of the accident. What is not clear is the extent of safety and security checks that were done before the trip was carried out.
Definitely, one expects that before any school children or students embark on an excursion anywhere, near and far, safety audits, from vehicles to the venue(s) to be visited are done by the school alongside other checks to establish the safety of the children or any other adults accompanying them. One expects also that the Ghana Education Service (GES) has defined safety parameters that should be ticked off before a school embarks on an off-site visit irrespective of the number of children involved.
In the Kintampo Waterfalls incident, what is not clear is whether any of the GES Inspectorate Divisions or even the school authorities checked for safety and security compliance before they signed off the school trip.
I remember two very tragic accidents in 2015 involving school children on excursions. In March 2015, children from a school in Kasoa in the Central Region went on a school trip to Afadjato in the Volta Region. The bus conveying the children had almost finished climbing the mountainous portion of the area when the driver lost control of the vehicle and fell into a ditch.
The result was what was distastefully captured on social media with gory pictures of the accident scene where dismembered bodies of some of the children were scattered at the accident scene and posted on WhatsApp. A very upsetting ending to an otherwise pleasurable journey for some 7 to 15-year-old children.
Again in 2015, there were some media reports of some 20 people, mostly school children, who went to have fun at the Bunso Canopy Walkway in the Eastern Region and were involved in an accident which saw many injured.
Accidents can happen and they do happen in the least expected moments. However, accidents can also be avoided or their impact could be minimised and that is why some people get punished when investigations lead to avoidable mistakes.
The fact is taking school children on a trip, whether for pleasure or study purposes always has a risk element in it no matter who has been consulted before the trip is embarked on. It is for this reason that school authorities should always ensure that they go through certain safety and security checks before they embark on such trips. Does a school take insurance cover for the children and adults who go on school trips? Do schools just assume that the places they visit are public and so they are safe to visit as well?
In cases where a third-party vehicle is hired for school trips, do the schools and for that matter the institution go through any checks at all? Who checks the insurance cover and the road worthiness of the vehicle as well as the other mandatory features such as seat belts and airbags? Does anybody check the competence of the driver assigned for the trip? These are all legitimate questions that schools or GES need to ascertain before they put children in vehicles for school trips.
The Kintampo Waterfalls tragedy should not have happened if somebody was monitoring the weather that Sunday afternoon. Why would anybody visit a waterfall site in the rain? Were there no adults supervising the trip? Could they not have avoided the trip to the waterfalls in bad weather as we were told there were strong winds, lightning and thunder before the rains set in?
The other side of the coin is the suitability of the site for public use. It must be the responsibility of someone within the Ministry of Tourism or the Tourism Authority to see to the safety and suitability of all of the country’s tourist sites. This week it is Kintampo, one of the country’s most popular waterfalls and according to reports, one of the frequently visited natural sites. Next time it could be another popular tourist site. Can anybody check the safety or otherwise of our tourism sites to make them tourist friendly?
It is good news that the Minister for Tourism has ordered the closure of the Kintampo Waterfalls. One wishes that on the back of this most unfortunate incident, the Ministry would quicken steps to audit all the tourism sites around the country before the Easter break when people devote time for domestic tourism.
Indeed, if we believe as a country that domestic tourism has a role to play in the economic development of our country then this is the time for us to pay attention to and start to put things right where they have been neglected for a long time. We do not need to wait for another Kintampo Waterfalls disaster to befall us before we rally around.
May the souls of all the students who lost their lives rest in peace.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
