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ECG cannot confirm recent power outages are gone for good

General News of Saturday, 30 March 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-03-30

DUMSOR DARK 696x427Last year, Energy Minister debunked rumours that dumsor was making a comeback.

Many Kokomlemle residents are pleading for a response from the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited after a lack of power supply left them in darkness for days.

Kwesi Owuso is a tailor whose work has been “hugely affected” due to lack of electricity.

“Clients are disappointed. Government must fix this problem,” he told Joy FM.

Another resident, Joseph, owns a barbershop and has had resorted to cutting hair manually. “I had to turn away most of my clients. It’s pathetic.”

ECG Accra East Region Public Relations Officer, Isaac Nurris Ainooson, told Joy FM Saturday that what caused the problem was from a faulty joint in the power lines.

He explained that in March and April specifically, extreme heat temps and the corresponding need of electricity overwhelms the power grid, leading to blackouts.

Ainooson could not confirm whether the power would remain steady, although he did mention that the problem has been temporarily fixed.

“We’ve had to throw away food, which comes at a cost. Some of us had to sleep outside because there’s no air coming into the room,” said another Accra resident living in Madina, where the power also cut out for several days. It’s frustrating.”

In 2016, ECG’s Ashanti regional public relations officer, Erasmus Baidoo, told Al Jazeera that one of the major problems with Ghana’s power supply is because “people try to cheat the system.”

He explained that only approximately 40 percent of ECG customers pay their bills, causing the company to be in millions of dollars in debt.

“What about the 60 percent [of customers that don’t pay]?” Baidoo asked. “Are you going to arrest everybody? Will you deny them power because they have not paid their bills?”

Last year, Energy Minister debunked rumours that dumsor was making a comeback.

“We’re not in an era of ‘dum koraaa.’ The lights may go off as we are witnessing, but I can assure you that, that long period that we envisaged that our opponents think that they want to capitalize on, that period will never come because we’re managing the system,” he said. “We have people here to manage the system, and we can give assurance to Ghanaians that the situation now is very much under control.”

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