The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Catherine Ablema Afeku, has said that her Ministry is working on a new legislative instrument which will restructure the profit sharing arrangements for all tourist attraction sites across the country.
The new LI, called the Receptive Facilities LI among other things, will ensure that revenues generated from the facilities will have part of it going to the custodial owners of the facility, the district assembly and the Ministry.
Mrs. Afeku said this when she and her deputy, Dr. Iddi Ziblim, as well as other technical members of the ministry toured some tourist sites in the Western Region on a 4-day tour.
Speaking to the chiefs and people of Nzulezo; the community on stilt in the Jomoro District, Mrs. Afeku bemoaned the poor sanitary conditions in the town.
Residents dump waste into the river on which the community is built, and there is no health post in the community.
She could not understand why revenues are been collected from visitors whilst sanitation issues in the community are not addressed.
“We want to introduce a receptive facilities LI. This LI will ensure that all tourist sites come under the ministry. It will require that the ministry together with Nananom, the district assembly and the youth, will sit to deliberate on how the profit which will come from the facility will be shared. The ministry will get its share, Nananom will get their share and the district assembly too will get its share to maintain the facility.
She continued that “proper waste management is absent here. It is the ministry and Step Foundation from the Japanese government that has brought a public toilet here. But where we have to dump our refuse is absent. Tourists may boycott visiting the facility because you are dumping refuse in the river”.
She said the new arrangement will ensure that some youth of Nzulezo will be employed by the assembly or waste management companies to help manage waste in the community. “That will give jobs to our youth too”. Mrs Afeku added.
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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana