The power cuts are here again!

THE DIARY OF ANANSE
…With KWAMENA ANANSE

Finally, Ghana’s Chief Executive of State, John Evans Atta Mills, has intervened in the ongoing power outages that has of late seen Ghanaians bearing the brunt of erratic power supply. The president’s intervention came in a form of a warning to the authorities of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to refrain from the practice of unannounced power interruptions.
This came to light when President Mills visited management of ECG in Accra last week Friday. I think the president was right in warning ECG in that regard. I know Ghanaians will agree with me that ECG cannot be allowed to continue treating us like some bunch of animals.
Anytime there is power interruption in a locality the general feeling is one of disgust, disappointment and a feeling of discomfort. This is in the face of the fact that residents in such an area are left to sleep in total darkness with its attendant effects.
Especially in the evening where there is power outage many are forced to undergo the stress of stuffiness and hotness of our various bedrooms. We do not have a good sleep because the room becomes so hot that our bodies most often are immersed in sweat: not to talk about the soaked nature of our bedspreads, blankets, cloth among others.
A lot of Ghanaians are unaware that there is a subtle power-rationing exercise ongoing nationwide. Why we have not been informed is something that can best be explained by the ECG.
Information on the upsurge of intermittent power cuts has been very scanty. That has given room for speculations. Whiles some believe the power outages are as a result of a load-shedding program embarked on by ECG others are of the opinion that it is the usual problem of today people having electricity and the next day the lights going out.
The stark truth is that ECG is rationing power for Ghanaians. That is what we need to understand. And it is important we brace ourselves for the worst. We have been told by ECG officials that the current electricity situation will last for a period of 18 months. That is pretty bad!
I got wind of this information on Peace Fm, a private radio station in Accra, during which Operations Director for ECG, Mr Tetteh Okai, announced that the load-shedding exercise will last for a year. One could imagine the losses that will be incurred by business which use electricity not to mention the damage it will do to domestic electrical appliances of ordinary poor Ghanaians.
This is something the poor Ghanaian majority will have to endure. For the poor masses who cannot afford the luxury of buying generators and feeding it with petrol or diesel we are left with no option than to be at the mercy of the electricity company. When there is power interruption we only have to pray and hope that it does not take too long.
Recently ECG started a nationwide exercise to apprehend and prosecute people who were engaged in illegal power connection. So far the initial reports on the ground suggest that the exercise is yielding positive returns. The question I want to ask ECG is that: why would it take them too long to do this? I believe that this is a routine thing that must be done by the company.
That has been the attitude of many of our institutions. They know the right thing but will pretend they are unaware and rather wait for the worst possible to happen before they take actions. This has been the approach adopted by our utility organisations.
Some of us become very worried when utility companies are milked by Ghanaians. This is because we need to acknowledge the fact that utility companies need money to run their operations and improve upon their services which is something that we all long to see. Therefore, I was happy when it was reported that ECG has set up a monitoring team to check illegal power connections by Ghanaians and companies.
From the way things are going it is clear that the electricity company is making some progress with its fight against people involved in illegal power connections. After exposing Africa Automobile Limited, the ECG task force in collaboration with the police has managed to uncover a syndicate engaged in massive illegal power connection at Mataheko, near Afienya.
The news that ECG is making progress with its quest to dealing with illegal power connection is indeed refreshing. That is the kind of approach I believe all well-meaning Ghanaians will want to see government institutions adopt to bring about efficiency in their operations.
But now to the issue of power outages. This has become a yearly ritual that hardly a year passes without the country going through one power crisis or the other. And now we have been told to prepare for the worst. The reason given by ECG is that some of its equipment and power generating machines are obsolete and thus need replacement.
Indeed, for how long is ECG going to continue giving us this same explanation. As a matter of fact, I think ECG has and continues to take their clients – the consuming Ghanaians – for granted. Why am I spewing out this? For many decades, Ghanaians have suffered too much at the hands of ECG. And it is not as if services provided by ECG are free for Ghanaians, every month we are billed and made to pay for whatever amount of power we consume.
Therefore, we are justified to demand from ECG nothing but qualitative services. It also appears that we have been soft with ECG. I can tell you that ECG cannot survive in any advanced country where there is keen competition and business entities are constantly looking for clients to patronise their products. I think it is time we started taking ECG on, and I believe when we assert ourselves in that regard we will be helping the electricity company to give us good value for our monies.
Again, I am disappointed that ECG has till date not made much publicity on its countywide load-shedding exercise both in the print and the electronic media. Many of us do not even know when our localities will experience power cuts. We will just be there and suddenly there will be power outage.
ECG must do the right thing. People must be well informed and abreast of when their areas will have their turns of power interruptions.
This will enable us all to plan ahead of any power cut. This is what I call mutual respect and not the practice where people will be there or in their absence there will be power outages. Our utility institutions must learn to do the right thing.