The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) branch in the Eastern region has lost about 130 electricity poles to bushfires.
The phenomenon is impacting negatively on power supply and finances of the company.
The incident is notorious during the dry season in Affram Plains North, East Akyem, Fanteakwa and Upper Manya Krobo Districts.
According to the Eastern regional Manager of ECG, Ing. Michael Baah, hunters set fire into bushes ostensibly to catch rats but end up burning the Electricity Polls.
“Most of the Areas that we operate are within the Savannah Zone, especially Donkorkrom, Begoro, Assesewa, then at times Tafo, we operate in predominantly farming communities and the culture we have in this part of the country is that [they] burn [their] farms before we plant so in the process of burning their farms they set fire into our poles.
“So far we have lost about 30 poles, last year we lost over 100 poles all because a hunter set fire into a bush because of a rat.”
Ing. Baah said, the Company will embark on awareness creation in the notorious communities to curb the menace.
He also mentioned chain sawing, cable theft, non-payment of bills and bush fires as some of the challenges militating against operations of ECG in the region.
Despite this challenges, the company connected 27,737 customers across the region in 2017 through government’s Self Help Electrification project (SHEP) and ECG’s Rural Electrification Project (REP).
While three Customer Service Centers worth Ghc1, 747, 455.24 have been constructed to serve customers around Anyinam, Kukurantumi and Abetifi as part of decentralization of its services.
He assured customers in the region of efficient supply of power adding that “Dumsor is now a thing of the past.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
