Load shedding may outlive September deadline

.. Akosombo Dam faces imminent shut down

Deputy Energy Minister, K.T. Hammond, has cast the first official stone, conceding rather grudgingly that government’s September end deadline to get the energy crisis over with, may not be met.

In an exclusive interview with Joy FM, a radio station in Accra, he said gauging by implementation difficulties involved in establishing generating set, and the hopelessness of the low water level in the Akosombo Dam, the September date is not realistic.

Hammond said rather than give another deadline to solve the energy crisis, he would have wished that the September date worked so as not to inflict on the populace, another unfulfilled date.

He however gave the assurance that the government was not giving up on the search for a permanent solution; promising that when the problem is finally over, it will never happen again, at least not in the reign of the New Patriotic Party government.

“It’s not a pleasant thing, you know, workers, manufacturers, people who use a little bit of electricity here and there for their… It’s really a difficult situation and we appreciate it. We in government, we appreciate it, I keep on appealing to Ghanaians to be patient; unless they are going to say that for how long?

“Bear with us you know I’m fairly reticent on this question because, quite frankly there’s a limit to human endurance, we appreciate it, we appreciate it and that is why the President is pretty clear in his mind and is pushing us; get this done you know. He knows it… His temperament is wearing thing with those of us charged with implementation to get it done. He appreciates that Ghanaians are also very unhappy; how long can they wait? How long can they endure this situation.

“But we appealed to them and we are appealing again: We said September and from what you have indicated there might be difficulties. But bear with us we will do it, we will do it and when we have done it we promise Ghanaians, now this is a promise that I can fairly make; This will not happen again under the administration of New Patriotic Party.”

K.T. Hammond however discounted fears that the Akosombo Dam faced an imminent shut down owing to operational difficulties engendered by the low water levels in the dam, arguing that not even the rumoured pending shutdown of one of the two running power generating lines would be implemented because government had no information to that effect.

He said in any case, government expected to be dealt with in all sincerity and fairness, and would not therefore expect that engineers and technical officials on the projects would give unreasonable notices for government to look elsewhere for supply because they had to shut down.