5,000 residents living without electricity in rural communities in Lower Manya Krobo

More than 5000 residents living in various rural communities in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal of the Eastern Region known as the ‘Middle Belt’ have bemoaned the lack of electricity in their communities, saying the situation is adversely impacting their livelihoods and social activities.

The communities include yongwasi suisi, Gyekiti, Ayemasu Piengua, Yongwasi Kpongunor, Okwedom Sisi, Oborpa Dogwam, Piengwa, Abotia Kpeti, Piengwa, Trawa, Tsledom, Wawase, Oborpah Blornya, Obelemanya, Apla, Aboben and Ayemasu Kperti.

The enclave with a total population of more than 5000, according to data available from the 2020 population and housing census due to lack of electricity, compels many residents to rely on solar energy and generators for their social and domestic activities.

Aside from communities such as Bueyonye and lately Oborpah who have access to electricity, all other communities within the “Middle Belt” continue to live in the dark.

Member of Parliament for the area, Honourable Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi prior to the 2016 elections took some poles to Gyekiti and Tsledom with the promise to facilitate the provision of electricity to the areas.

Six years on, however, the poles continue to “rot” in the bushes with no sight of power.

Residents tell GhanaWeb that the situation has been like that for the past years.

For instance, Edmund Kwadwo Tetteh a farmer at Gortsonya, regrets that the situation is driving away investors who have shown interest in establishing businesses in the affected communities.

“There are some investors who promised to come to establish farms here and put up accommodation facilities for them but because of the light problem, they didn’t come…everybody who wants to invest in some work here have a problem with the lack of electricity so we don’t have those investors,” he said.

Mr. Edmund Tetteh while appealing to the government to extend electricity supply to the affected communities said, “We are appealing to the government, we beg him, we also need light.”

Gokah Anku is also a farmer at Yonguase. The young mother of three while expressing regret about the government’s failure to fulfill its promise of extending electricity supply to her community said aside from being at the mercy of reptiles and insects in the night, electricity if supplied would enhance economic activities among the populace.

“We don’t have electricity here and we suffer during the night because we can’t see and sometimes insects fall into our food and we get bitten by snakes when walking in the dark,” said Miss Anku.

She added: “We would greatly appreciate it if electricity was extended to this area because it would boost economic activities. We can operate cold stores, hairdressing salons and other micro-economic activities, we need the light badly,” said madam Anku.

GhanaWeb observed that the electricity poles brought to the community under the guise of extending power to the area have been abandoned.

Gokah Anku expressed her disappointment over the situation thus, “They brought poles for us and we’ve been expecting the light but that has not been done.”

The situation is also affecting teaching and learning in the affected communities.

Headmaster of the Tsledom M/A Basic School described the situation as “one of the major problems” and lamented that pupils were unable to learn at home or perform their home works during the evenings.

“…when school closes and they (students) go home, they don’t have light to do their home works. Sometimes they come to school and the following morning, they try to do the work we gave to them the previous day,” said the school head, describing the problem as a great challenge.

Dademastse (community leader) of Tsledom, one of the affected communities, Dadematse Etsemo Atter expressed disappointment in the situation, adding that the youth would stay put in the community and ply a trade there if there was electricity.

The Dadematse and his people are now worried and unable to cope with the situation and want something done promptly about their long-standing electricity challenge.

They say it is difficult to engage in any economic activity such as selling refrigerated food like frozen fish and water to earn income to help boost their living conditions.

The affected community folks have therefore appealed to the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly and the government to provide the community with electricity to help improve their livelihoods.

This, they say will also help improve the education of their wards and facilitate the development of the community.

Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the area, Simon Kweku Tetteh when contacted noted that transformers had been sent to some of the affected communities pending the extension of power to the areas in question.

He named the beneficiary communities of the transformers as Wawase, Oborpah, Obelemanya, Apla, Aboben, Odorkorm and Ayemasu Kperti.

“All those areas have their transformers that have been fixed and we’re only waiting for the collaboration between the contractor, the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for them to be using it and the rest that is yet to be worked on, those ones too plans are far advanced to send lights to those areas,” the MCE assured.