Business operators and residents in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region are expressing frustration and outrage over the continuous power outages plaguing the area.
The frequent interruptions in power supply in the last few weeks have sparked discontent in the Ashanti Regional capital, raising concerns about the reliability of the electricity service in the region.
Residents in Asokwa, Oforikrom, Bosomtwe and other parts of the Greater Kumasi areas are worse affected. Complaints include damage to electrical appliances and a negative impact on productivity.
The situation was no different when Asaase News visited the TI AMASS Senior High School in Asokwa on Thursday morning. A lack of electricity at water pumping plants has forced students to hunt for the commodity. 15-year-old Pokuaa Nyamekye says she can’t take her bath and maintain good hygiene if the situation persists.
“For someone like me if I have my period and I don’t take my bath I can’t go to the classroom. Some of us have to skip dawn lessons to search for water and this has affected normal life on campus. We humbly pray that this is resolved very soon otherwise things will get worse in the coming days.”
“It started over the weekend and today around 1 am some of us had to hunt for water again”, said another student. “We have come to the court premises for some help. Some are even bathing at the [Kumasi] mall. This is terrible”.
The Ghana National Fire Service which has observed the situation fears more fire outbreaks could be recorded if nothing is done to stem the tide. DO3 Peter Adai, the Ashanti Regional Spokesperson for the Service said, “It goes a long way to affect our operations in that when the power goes off and it being restored it comes with a high voltage than our home appliances can contain. So, for us we educate the public that whenever the fire goes off it important that they take safety precautions by turning off their appliances and if possible, unplug them”.
“And so, we want to urge the public that to take our intensified education seriously especially now that we are experiencing these outages”, he added.
Attempts to get officials from the Electricity Company of Ghana for comments have yielded little results when this report is filed. However, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) says it is monitoring the situation keenly. The regulator has assured that water would be restored by close of Thursday barring any unforeseen circumstances.
The Ashanti regional spokesperson at the PURC, Richard Asiedu, explains that “since last Saturday we realised that most residents in parts of the Greater Kumasi areas have been experiencing water shortage. We reached out to the ECG, and they informed us that they had a cable blast around one of their substations and so they were trying to fix the situation. The situation has affected water supply as the Ghana Water Company also rely heavily on power supply during their operations”.
There is a strong push for an alternative arrangement to avoid disruption in power distribution in Kumasi as residents maintain the situation is taking a toll on their livelihoods.
Reporting by Jonathan Ofori & Janet Akosua Gley, Ashanti Region
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