WECHIAU HIPPO SANCTUARY CHALKS 10 (GRAPHIC SHOWBIZ, OCT 22)

By Chris Nunoo

THE Wechiau Community Hippopotamus Sanctuary is 10 years old but there is little to show for it.
The sanctuary which is now a household name with respect to ecotourism attractions in Ghana is confronted with many challenges that have not enabled it to take its deserving place among the major tourism offerings in the country.
Ten years down the line, the road from the Wechiau town to the sanctuary would easily discourage visitors from driving there. There is also a problem of the availability of potable water while communities constituting the sanctuary have no regular electricity supply.
The sanctuary came into being through the efforts of the late Wechiau chief, Naa Bayon Doga II and can presently boast of over 20 hippos, monkeys and various kinds of birds.
At a well attended durbar held at the forecourt of the Wechiau Naa’s palace to mark the tenth anniversary last week, the Upper West Regional Minister, Mr. Mahmud Khalid, who was the special guest, urged the people of the area to periodically review the activities of the sanctuary in order to improve on it.
The regional minister reminded the people of the benefits that the communities stood to gain if the sanctuary was successfully developed and advised them to be friendly to visitors who patronised the sanctuary and be prepared to share historic information.
The durbar attracted a delegation from Canada and the United Kingdom led by the Chief Executive Officer of the Calgary Zoo in Canada, Mr. Clement Lanthier.
The delegation, as friends of the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary, have contributed to the development of the sanctuary project. They have also assisted in the construction of a number of boreholes and schools for some of the surrounding communities.
The CEO of Calgary Zoo, Mr. Clement Lanthier was enskinned by the traditional leaders of the respective communities in the Wa West district, as the Bagyaa Naa meaning chief for all the communities in the sanctuary.
The Wa West District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Seidu Tungbani, for his part, said that by-laws which would help protect the sanctuary and its environs were at the latter stages of completion and which when gazetted would be rigidly enforced to sustain the sanctuary.
Touching on what the assembly intends to do to give a facelift to the town and the sanctuary, the DCE mentioned plans to mechanise a borehole at the tourist lodge (hostel), the construction of the road leading to the sanctuary, construction of a modern guest house in Wechiau as well as the extension of electricity to the communities constituting the sanctuary.
The Head of Conservation Outreach of Calgary Zoo in Canada, Mr. Brian Keatings, called for closer collaboration between the Wechiau community hippo sanctuary and the Calgary Zoo in Canada. He urged the local community to appreciate the benefits of wildlife and called for practices that would enable wildlife to be catered for in its natural habitat.
“The world must begin to work together to keep wildlife where they belong. We must work together to provide education, water and a better life for our children and for those yet to be born and this can only happen when we involve the local people in all that we do” he said.
The President of the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs and Chief of Dorimon, Naa S D Gore, chaired the function.