Help protect electric poles from bush fires – ECG

The General Manager of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the Volta Region, Mr Emmanuel Lumor, has called on municipal and district assemblies to make conscious and sustained efforts to support the company to protect its installations from perennial bush fires.

He said the high incidence of the loss of electricity poles to bush fires was adversely affecting the smooth operations of the company.

 “We expect the assemblies, which are strategic stakeholders in our operations, to help us with great zeal and enthusiasm to curb the trend,” the ECG General Manager added.

Mr Lumor was speaking at a meeting with members of the Ketu South Municipal Assembly in Denu last Thursday on plans by the ECG to improve power supply in the area.

He said 14 electricity poles had been destroyed by bush fires in the region this year and that it would cost a fortune to replace them.

He said illegal connection of electricity to homes and workplaces by some recalcitrant individuals was also adversely affecting the fortunes and operations of the company.

Mr Lumor announced plans by the company to install 400 new transformers at various locations in addition to the existing 2,448 ones in the region to improve power supply.  

He said the ECG had instituted measures such as the creation of fire belts around electricity poles and replacing the old and damaged ones with steel tubular poles.

However, he said that the ECG definitely needed the collaboration of the assemblies to minimise the occurrence of bush fires along the long lines of the poles.

Still on illegal connections, Mr Lumor called on patriotic members of the public to promptly report the miscreants who engaged in such acts to the ECG, in the interest of the public.

He reminded the assemblies of their duty to ensure that the communities were provided with street lights and entreated them to seek assistance from the ECG with regard to their installation.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Elliot Agbenorwu, assured the ECG of the assembly’s stance to work together with the company towards an uninterrupted power supply to the public.

FROM ALBERTO MARIO NORETTI, DENU