By Jones Anlimah
The Akatsi North District Assembly of the Volta Region is taking measures to reopen the Ave Dakpa Crocodile Resort, a popular tourist attraction in the region by the end of May this year, following an incident where a tourist was attacked by a crocodile about two years ago. The attack led to the closure of the facility by the Ghana Tourism Authority for all safety guidelines and instructions to be provided and followed to ensure the safety of tourists who visit the resort.
The Ave Dakpa Crocodile Resort is located at Ave-Dakpa in the Akatsi North district of the Volta Region. It is a popular tourist attraction that offers visitors the chance to see live crocodiles in their natural habitat, as well as take guided tours of the surrounding area. The resort is situated on the banks of the Ave River, which is home to a large population of Nile crocodiles.
When the facility was partially opened over two years ago, visitors could watch the crocodiles sunning themselves on the riverbanks or swimming in the water and also had the opportunity to feed them and get closer for picture-taking opportunities. It was one of such picture-taking opportunity that resulted in an attack on a lady tourist who got very close to one of the crocodiles on December 20th, 2020.
The attack raised concerns about the safety of visitors to the facility and led to its closure by the Ghana Tourism Authority.
A visit to the facility by GBCNEWS showed that the entrance to the facility has been locked to prevent people from still accessing the facility. it has also been overgrown with weeds which may pose a threat to anyone who tries to access the place by way of reptile bites.
In an interview with Gbcnews the Akasti North District Chief Executive Mr. Simon Peter Kofi Ofosu said the Assembly has been working with the necessary state agencies to address issues of increased safety of visitors, licensing and registration and the provision of safety guidelines for visitors.
“One of the things they requested from us very keenly was to have a trained tour guide at the site. And then also to create some kind of a buffer between the river bank and where the visitors will be able to stand and observe the crocodiles. The next thing is to have the site registered so we have picked the licensing application forms at the regional office of the Ghana Tourism Authority and they require from us to have a police security report, a fire report, the site plan of the area and a few other documents which we have been following up with.” he said.
“We have the police report, we have the site plan put in place, we have the environmental and sanitation report also ready. What is left is for us to finalize and file our application on the fire report” Mr. Ofosu added.
While assuring of the Assembly’s commitment towards ensuring that the facility is reopened with adequate safety measures which will also improve the local economy in the area, Mr. Ofosu called on the people of the area especially the youth to exercise restraint in accessing the facility without the much-needed safety measures.
“While we are doing these, we will continue to also engage our traditional authorities, the community and the youth to give them the assurance that the Assembly is doing everything possible to make sure that we have the facility re-opened within the shortest possible time. However, while we do these we will also encourage them to restrain themselves from using the facility,” he noted.
“Though we were not able to meet our target of getting the place ready before Easter, we are perfectly sure that before the end of May, we would have completed all the necessary processes required from us as an Assembly and we will be looking up to the GTA lifting the ban on the site and then we now can go ahead and operationalize activities as such.” Mr. Ofosu opined.
