Electricity poles left to rot while Klo Djekiti residents sleep in darkness

Correspondence from Eastern Region:

A number of electricity poles meant to connect Klo Djekiti in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality to the national grid have been left to the mercy of the weather since 2016.

The community has never tasted nor seen electricity since creation. Pupils are unable to study in the evening because of the thick darkness.

According to a resident, Richard Sackey who spoke to GhanaWeb in an interview, the poles were brought to the community by the Member of Parliament for Lower Manya constituency, Mr. Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, in 2016 before the general Elections; and gave them the assurance that they were soon to start enjoying electricity but that has not happened.

“When I came from school I saw the poles lying down here and I asked why the poles were lying there and I was told that they were brought by the MP. So they (the Assembly) even told us that we would get electricity, they announced light will be coming to the community...

“We put an appeal to them (the Assembly) that it is very difficult for pupils in the community to learn in the evening and as such perform poorly in their BECE. The poles have been lying here all day since 2016 we didn’t hear anything from them,” he explained.

Meanwhile, attempts to reach the MP has not been successful.

Klo Djekiti is a remote farming community that lacks basic amenities that can make life a bit comfortable for the residents. The road leading to the community from Oborpa is woefully deplorable.

There is no potable water at the moment as the only borehole constructed by the Chinese government in 2016 has broken down for close to two years now.

The committee on water and sanitation in the community-led a silver collection venture to get contributions from all households to get an income to purchase new parts to repair the borehole had a paltry amount that could not meet the cost of the parts.

Richard Sackey told Ghanaweb that the community wrote to the MP to help them repair the broken borehole, which he did but it broke down again after a month.

As a result, the community has resorted to rely on a nearby stream to get water for all purposes including health service delivery.

The Djekiti community was without a health centre until June 2019, when the Municipal Assembly intervened and constructed a magnificent Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound.

However, the CHPS compound had been rendered useless since 2019 as it was not connected with electricity and water thereby making it unattractive for health officers to live there.