Ms Christina Jatoe-Kaleo, General Manager of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Volta/Oti Regions, has called on the public to help protect electric poles by reducing indiscriminate bushfires.
She said bushfires remained a challenge that impacted heavily on the Company’s ability to provide reliable and quality power.
Ms Jatoe-Kaleo, speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), revealed that yearly, the ECG lost poles due to bushfires, which impacted on the supply of power.
She said between January and December last year, 10 poles had been damaged, adding that the cost of acquiring the new poles was GH¢54,000 excluding their transportation, fuel cost and hiring labour and machinery.
Ms Jatoe-Kaleo said the resources needed to extend power supply to new customers were channeled into replacing damaged poles and fervently appealed to Ghanaians to help ECG to keep the lights on.
She noted that ECG, as part of its maintenance culture every year, cleared lands around electric poles and had extended that culture in the regions to creating fire belts around the poles.
Ms Jatoe-Kaleo said special fire-resistant paints were also used to paint the poles to help protect them, while wooden poles had been replaced with metallic ones in areas where bushfires are rampant.
She said the Company continued to engage stakeholders and held community engagements to sensitise the public and also form watch committees to help curb bushfires in their areas.
Ms Jatoe-Kaleo appealed to the public to avoid indiscriminate bush fires and avoid burning domestic rubbish around electric poles in the community.
She said the Company as its core mandate would continue to provide safe and reliable electricity supply to customers.
GNA
MA/CA
Jan 9, 2024
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