Adasawase Waterfall: a unique experience

A GNA feature by Hannah Asomaning

Accra, Oct.19, GNA - "Wow, this is beautiful," I exclaimed when I saw the waterfall five minutes walk away from the place and gave a sigh of relief.


I immediately forgot about the journey, which I can conveniently describe as the most tiring I have had in a very long time. The waterfall is located at the North Eastern part of Adasawase. It has cascaded beautifully over several rocks demonstrating excellent scenery.


The waterfall is estimated to be bigger than Boti falls and could be considered as one of the biggest and flows down in showers. It has very clean and cold sparkling water.


A virgin forest, caves and beautiful rocks surround the waterfall. It is big in volume and falls at over 60 metres high, and is seven metres wide.


Accessibility to the place is very poor but the beauty of the fall is such that after a long and tiresome walk to the site one finds a relief by the scenic beauty of the waterfall in the natural cool environment.

The waterfall has a potential of attracting more tourists when the road leading to the place is well developed and the place promoted. Adasawase is a village located in the Eastern Region, five kilometres off the Ayinam road. The village is not densely populated but


has telephone facilities so one can easily make and receive calls. Until the celebration of this year's World Tourism Day, a lot of people knew little about the existence of a waterfall in the village, even the villagers who reside in the town struggled with visitors to view the waterfall on that day.


More than 1,000 people thronged Adasawase, to view a waterfall believed to be among the biggest in the country but was unknown until recently.


The young, old men, women, children and government officials, including Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Deputy Minister of Tourism, walked the 10-kilometre distance from the town to the waterfall to climax the celebration of World Tourism Day.


One official of the Ghana Tourist Development Agency described the journey as a real adventure.

He said: "My travelling to Adasawase would have been useless if I did not come to see the waterfall."


World Tourism Day is celebrated worldwide every September 27 to expose unknown tourist attractions both for domestic and international tourism.


This year's celebration was under the theme: "Travel and Transport, An Imaginary of Jules Verne to the Reality of the 21st Century". It was to educate transport owners, tour operators and Ghanaians about the need to practice road safety and its relevance to tourism development.


Adasawase, the venue for the celebration of this year's World Tourism Day, provides ample proof that Ghana's tourism industry has come of age and has an immense potential.


The local people have named the waterfall, "Tini" Waterfall after River Tini, the source of their drinking water. It is believed that River Tini has its source from the waterfall.

However, the people from Ministry of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital City and other tourists referred to it as Adasawase Waterfall.


Some of tourists sat in tractors to get back to the town, as even 'four by four' vehicles could not be driven on the road. A tractor, which is not to pick passengers, had about 15 people, and others struggled to find a place since it was very difficult walking back to the town.


The villagers took advantage of the occasion to display foodstuffs for the tourists to buy; others sold boiled eggs, apples and other fruits on the road to the waterfall to the tourists.


Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital City, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said a lot of people were becoming more aware of the country's tourism potentials and the immense benefits the industry could bring to the country.


"Chiefs of various towns and villages all over the country come to the Ministry to inform us that they have a tourist potential in their vicinity which they feel when developed could help attract more visitors to the country and request the ministry's help in developing it," he said.

The Minister said Ghana was comparatively blessed with a rich, unique and diverse natural and cultural heritage, which should develop in a manner to achieve the goals of our poverty reduction strategy. Mr Ferdinand Ayim, Special Assistant to the Minister of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital City, told the GNA that the waterfall favourably compared with similar attractions of international dimension. Papa Owusu Ankomah, Minister of the Interior and guest speaker for the celebration called for close collaboration between stakeholders to develop and manage the Adasawase Waterfall, which he described as nature's delight, into one of the most exciting adventure tourism products in West Africa.


"Adasawase and its environs can be such an adventure tourists delight; (the environment) comprising virgin rain forest, food and cash crop farms, a string of caves, mighty trees and a collection of waterfalls is indeed amazing,"