There is this wise saying that one does not know the value of what he is holding until he loses it. For those of us who have taken electricity for granted, the reality of this wise saying dawned on us, when for two days – Christmas Eve, December 24 and Christmas Day, December 25, 2010 – some communities in Tema, Nungua and Teshie were without electricity.
Power outages are nothing new to the Ghanaian public and power failures at any time of the day do not make news for obvious reasons. But it was still an experience too painful to bear that of all days, Christmas Day and the day preceding it should be spent in darkness.
This is a period when almost every household, even the not-well-to-do, tries by all means including collaterality (with apologies to oil and gas) to fill the refrigerator with fresh meat and other perishable food items for the celebration.
All these went bad because the engineers at ECG could not rectify whatever problem it was which triggered the power blackout on Friday, December 24, 2010.
Information from the nation’s sole power distributor was scanty while desperate and frustrated consumers had to do guess work of their own. But it was not difficult to blame the fault on damaged equipment which gave up either for old age or negligence or a combination of both.
By now not many people will claim ignorance of the challenges facing power generation, transmission and distribution in the country. We are aware of obsolete and overused equipment and installations. We know of inadequate facilities that have failed to meet increased population density and new human settlements. We know that power generation had excessively relied on nature, especially in the immediate past when the Akosombo and Kpong dams were the main sources of electricity generation for the country.
We cannot lose sight of the human factors which include bad management practices, incompetence, pilfering and sheer sabotage by gangsters who for personal gains vandalise installations of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Hopefully, with thermal generation and with abundant gas from the West African Gas Pipeline Project and from our own Jubilee Field, we are getting close to the situation whereby our worry will not be about power generation but about transmission and distribution.
Even though as consumers we have always been disappointed with the failures of ECG in particular, because they deal with us directly, the Volta River Authority (VRA) and GRIDCo, some of us have come to appreciate the hard facts about their challenges.
It is, however, about time we reduced the excuses and approach issues of the power sector with more seriousness. Now that we have suddenly found ourselves in a middle-income country that is an oil-exporting country in Africa, we should expect more people with business motives to be interested in our country. And nothing can be more frustrating to a business person than an erratic power supply system, especially when production was expected to be at its peak. ECG and the other service providers in the energy sector must redouble their efforts to make power outages things of the past.
I do not know the institution that manages the Accra-Tema Motorway, but I know the Ministry of Roads and Highways has contracted a company to collect tolls on the motorway. I, therefore, hope my concern will not be misdirected if I, on behalf of other motorists, appeal to the ministry to use the same vim it applied to collect tolls on the motorway to ensure that the reflective markings on the motorway that have long faded are restored without further delay.
This is a major road carrying heavy traffic between Accra and Tema and beyond, yet this is a road bareft of any reflective markings. We do not need any consultant to tell us that the motorway in its present form poses a threat to life, especially in the night when every motorist determines his/her fair portion of the road.
Providing reflective markings in the middle and the edges of the motorway in particular and other major roads in the country should not be ignored for the sake of lack of funds, which has become the unending song we always sing. It is good to ask motorists to be careful when driving. It is equally good to make the roads suitable for good driving.
Still on making our roads safe for both motorists and pedestrians, it is unfortunate the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit of the Ghana Police Service has not been able to manage the arbitrariness of the drivers, especially commercial drivers who have turned the edges or shoulders of Accra roads into special lanes for their use.
The traffic regulations are clear but we are unable to enforce them, thus not only placing the lives of law-abiding citizens at risk, but very often making it look as if it is a crime to obey the laws of the road.
We have lived with too many excuses for our failures. Let us resolve that in the New Year, we shall register more positive results and get our systems functioning instead of offering excuses for our human failures. Thanks to ECG, mine and that of thousands of others could not be described as a merry Christmas.
I wish to thank my readers whose interest continue to sustain this column. May the New Year be a prosperous one for all.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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