2 MORE WATERFALLS IDENTIFIED IN YILO KROBO

THE National Biodiversity Committee has identified two more waterfalls locked up in the Boti Forest in addition to the Boti falls in the Yilo Krobo District as potential tourist destinations.

The newly discovered falls are the Huum and Chakachakam waterfalls situated at Opersika and Nsutakpong in the Boti falls area.

Despite the fact that the communities were living in the vicinity of the two waterfalls, they were not known to the government and the outside world.

The committee has, therefore, made recommendation to the government to ensure the perennial flow of the three waterfalls.

Presently, the Boti Falls, which used to flow throughout the year, gets dried up in the dry season because of the environmental degradation in the catchment area of the waterfall.

The Chairman of the committee, Prof. Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, who presented a report on the environmetal situation, Accra, said there was the urgent need to train the farmers on alternative livelihood to reduce the pressure on the biological diversity of the area.

He said through interactions with the communities along the waterfalls, cocoa and terminalia tree had been suggested for propagation along the catchment areas of the falls to replace the forest cover that had been destroyed by negative traditional farming practices.

Prof. Oteng-Yeboah said the rehabilitation of the degrading environment around the Boti falls would allow the perennial flow of the falls.

He said it was an embarrassing situation since the country had advertised the Boti Falls on the international map for tourists but tourists arrived at the falls to find that they were dried up in the dry season.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Yilo Krobo, Mr. Joseph Adu Tawiah, who addressed the seminar, said the Assembly was generating revenue from tourism which was immensely contributing to the development of the district.

He said the drying up of the falls was therefore affecting the district and the people economically because the lives of the people depended on the river Pompom, which supplied water to the falls.

Mr. Adu Tawiah said apart form the waterfalls, there was the umbrella rock and some ancient caves, which contribute to the importance of Boti Falls as a tourist’s destination.

He observed that it was not the intention of the communities to destroy the resources on which their survival depended, but they were desperate searching for means of livelihood because of their poverty situation and that had led to environmental degradation.

Mr. Tawiah said the district assembly was currently considering plans to come up with alternative livelihood to arrest the environmental degradation.