Electricity knocked out of Nkwanta as wildfires destroy poles

Nkwanta, Feb 29, GNA - Nkwanta District has been without electricity for two weeks now because bushfires have destroyed wooden electricity poles. The situation has brought economic activities including small-scale businesses, health delivery and availability of potable water to a standstill, Mr Joseph Booker Denteh, the District Chief Executive, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview. He said people in the area have resorted to unsafe sources of drinking water with grave health risks as treated water could not be produced and distributed. Mr Denteh suggested to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to localize the contract clearing of weeds around the poles to avoid the current predicament but Mr Stephen Dodeah Nkwanta, District Manager of the ECG, said contract weeding was only a first aid measure and that the solution to the problem was attitudinal change through public education. Mr Dodeah said the electricity poles from Nkwanta through Brewaniase to Papase junction and the Nkwanta to Nkwarantan stretches were affected by the wildfires and this could thwart the government's Rural Electrification Project. He said ECG was working towards restoring power to the district by replacing the burnt wooden poles with concrete ones pending long-term solution to the perennial wildfires in the area.