When darkness becomes normal, development becomes the casualty: By Nana Kwabena Owusu, Media Personality & Guantoahene of Abiriw Akuapem.
There is a question that the people of Okere District, particularly residents of Abiriw and Adukrom, are increasingly asking:
Is reliable electricity a privilege, or is it a basic public service that citizens have every right to demand?
For residents who have endured repeated and sometimes prolonged power outages, this is no longer simply a matter of inconvenience. It has become a development question, an economic question, an educational question and, increasingly, a question of accountability.
Okere District is not an insignificant community tucked away in the mountains of Akuapem.
According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, the district had a population of 51,675 people, comprising 24,582 males and 27,093 females. More recent district-level projections put the population above 54,000. The district capital is Adukrom, while Abiriw,
Dawu, Awukugua, Apirede, Aseseeso and Abonse are among its principal communities.
Yet, for a population of this size, the question of electricity reliability remains disturbingly unresolved.
THE GREAT POWER QUESTION
Information available to us indicates that electricity serving the Akuapem-Mampong
operational area is supplied through the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) network, including infrastructure associated with the Mampong area.
A figure of approximately 210 amps has been cited in discussions concerning the available power supply/load on the
Mampong system which is stated as enough power supply to the Okere District.
Then Why does the light keep going off?
In speaking to ECG, the District Engineer responsible for the Akuapem North and Okere area, Mr. Nyameke, offered a number of explanations for the recurring outages.
His response was clear: the situation is not out of control, and residents should
exercise patience.
According to him, the mountainous geography of Akuapem creates unique challenges for electricity distribution. Akuapem is blessed with forests, hills and abundant trees. But those same environmental characteristics can create serious threats to electricity infrastructure.
Strong winds can bring trees down onto power lines.
Branches can interfere with distribution lines. Storms and lightning can strike transformers and other electrical equipment.
And according to ECG, some phases can become overloaded, including situations where district-level infrastructure and development activities contribute to uneven loading.
These are legitimate technical challenges, he said. But here is where the conversation
must become more serious:
How long should residents be expected to exercise patience?
A day? A week? A month? A year?
And at what point does patience become an excuse for infrastructure deficiencies?
ECG HAS A SECOND PROBLEM: MANPOWER
The District Engineer also disclosed another challenge that should concern residents and policymakers. The technical team serving the area, according to him, consists of fewer than 15 technicians.
That is a remarkably small technical workforce to monitor, maintain and respond to faults across a mountainous district with numerous communities, roads, trees, transformers, poles and distribution lines.
ECG’s position is that its technicians cannot physically be everywhere at the same time.
That is understandable. But it also raises another question:
If the problem is partly manpower, who is responsible for ensuring that the people
responsible for keeping the lights on have enough hands to do the job?
This cannot simply become the residents’ problem. ECG has also appealed to citizens to provide information whenever they identify faults.
This is important. Residents see fallen poles. They see broken lines. They hear transformers explode. They see sparks.
They experience voltage fluctuations.
They know when their community goes off while another community remains on.
Citizen reporting can therefore help ECG identify the location and nature of faults more quickly.
But there is a danger here. The electricity consumer cannot become the unpaid field engineer of ECG. Residents should certainly report faults. But the responsibility for designing a reliable distribution system, maintaining it and responding promptly to faults ultimately remains with the utility provider.
ECG should therefore strengthen its communication channels so that a resident does not have to make five telephone calls, send multiple messages and wait for hours before a fault is properly logged and assigned to a technical team. This is a common national problem that appears in almost all the regions, why?
THE ONE ISOLATOR PROBLEM
Perhaps the most revealing part of the conversation with ECG was the revelation
concerning isolators.
According to the District Engineer, there are enough transformers within the system to
cater for the population, but the district currently has only one isolator serving the entire area.
This is where the problem becomes particularly interesting. An isolator helps electrical teams sectionalise portions of a network so that faults can be identified and affected areas isolated without necessarily shutting down a much larger section of the network.
According to the engineer, because of the location and configuration of the existing
isolator, communities such as Abiriw and Adukrom can be disproportionately affected
when faults occur.
If this account is accurate, then the issue is no longer simply about whether ECG has
enough transformers. It is about whether the distribution network has sufficient sectionalisation and protection
infrastructure. And that is a completely different question.
Why should an entire town suffer because the fault is somewhere else?
That is precisely why ECG is appealing for support to procure additional isolators so that individual towns and sections of the district can be properly separated.
More isolators could mean:
Faster identification of faults;
Smaller areas being switched off during faults;
Quicker restoration of unaffected communities;
Reduced pressure on technical teams;
Better network management;
Less disruption to businesses and households.
If this is technically feasible, then it should become an urgent priority.
BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OFF?
For some people, a power outage means the television goes off.
For others, it means something much more serious.
THE HOUSEHOLD
Food stored in refrigerators and freezers can spoil.
Water pumps stop working. Children cannot study comfortably at night. Mobile phones cannot be charged.
Fans and air conditioners stop working.
Small home-based businesses lose productive hours.
And repeated power fluctuations can damage electrical appliances.
For low-income households, replacing a refrigerator, television, computer or other
appliance is not a minor expense.
THE SHOPKEEPER
For the small business owner in Abiriw or Adukrom, every hour without electricity can
represent lost revenue. Barbers cannot operate. Welders cannot work.
Tailors and dressmakers lose production time. Cold stores and drinking spots face the risk of losing stock. Provisions shops depending on refrigeration are affected.
Phone charging businesses lose customers.
Restaurants and food vendors struggle to preserve perishables.
And businesses forced to rely on generators face an additional burden of fuel costs.
In an economy where margins are already thin, repeated outages can gradually destroy a small business.
SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION
Perhaps one of the most worrying consequences is the disruption of teaching and learning.
Students increasingly depend on electricity and digital technology for research, online
learning, printing, charging devices and accessing educational materials.
A student preparing for BECE, WASSCE, tertiary examinations or professional
examinations should not have to plan his or her academic schedule around whether ECG will keep the lights on.
Teachers and schools are also affected.
ICT laboratories need electricity.
Computers need electricity. Printers need electricity. Projectors need electricity.
Internet equipment needs electricity.
And increasingly, modern education depends on digital access.
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
Government offices, health facilities, schools and other public institutions cannot function efficiently when electricity becomes unpredictable.
The consequences can be particularly serious in health facilities where refrigeration, medical equipment, lighting and electronic systems depend on stable electricity.
Indeed, frequent outages have historically affected healthcare operations in the wider
Akuapem area, with the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital previously requiring an emergency generating plant because power interruptions had affected its operations.
So this is not merely about whether someone’s television programme was interrupted. It is about public service delivery.
OKERE CANNOT DEVELOP IN THE DARK
There is something fundamentally contradictory about talking about economic
development while communities continue to struggle with unreliable electricity.
Okere has enormous potential. Agriculture is important. Tourism is important.
Small and medium-sized businesses are important. Traditional institutions are important.
Youth entrepreneurship is important.
The district’s proximity to Accra and Koforidua gives it strategic economic potential.
The official district profile identifies agriculture, cassava processing, gari production, trading and small-scale enterprise among its economic activities, while tourism is also identified as an area of potential.
But none of these sectors can reach their full potential without dependable energy.
You cannot industrialise in darkness.
You cannot digitise in darkness.
You cannot attract serious investors into darkness.
You cannot expect young entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses around
unpredictable electricity.
And you certainly cannot market Okere as an emerging tourism and investment destination while its basic infrastructure remains unreliable.
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN NOW?
This problem requires more than another promise to “exercise patience.”
1. ECG MUST PUBLISH A CLEAR NETWORK ASSESSMENT
ECG should provide the Assembly and community leaders with a clear explanation of:
The actual capacity of the Mampong supply system;
The feeders serving Okere;
The number and capacity of transformers serving the district; The major recurring fault locations;
The average duration of outages;
The number of technicians assigned to the district;
The immediate infrastructure gaps;
The proposed solution and timeline.
2. MORE ISOLATORS SHOULD BE PRIORITISED
If the District Engineer’s assessment is correct that additional isolators would allow faults to be sectionalised and restoration to happen faster, then the Assembly, ECG and relevant authorities must treat this as an urgent intervention.
Why should one fault plunge multiple communities into darkness?
Sectionalisation is not a luxury.
It is part of building a resilient distribution network.
3. THE OKERE DISTRICT ASSEMBLY MUST TAKE OWNERSHIP
The Assembly should not simply say that electricity is the responsibility of ECG.
Yes, ECG is the electricity distributor.
But unreliable electricity affects every aspect of district development.
The Assembly should therefore convene an emergency stakeholder meeting involving ECG, traditional authorities, MPs, Assembly leadership, businesses, schools, health facilities and community representatives.
The goal should be simple:
Develop a written Okere Power Reliability Action Plan.
4. TRADITIONAL AUTHORITIES MUST JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Traditional authorities have a unique ability to mobilise communities.
Chiefs can help facilitate:
Community fault-reporting structures;
Public education;
Tree management around power lines;
Community monitoring;
Engagement with ECG;
Advocacy for infrastructure investment.
If trees are genuinely causing significant damage to electrical infrastructure, then traditional
authorities, the Assembly and ECG should work together on a structured vegetation-
management programme.
5. CITIZENS MUST REPORT FAULTS — AND REPORT THEM PROPERLY
Residents should not simply say, “The lights are off.”
They should provide:
Exact location;
Nearest landmark;
Pole number, where available;
Nature of fault;
Time the fault occurred;
Whether neighbouring communities are also affected;
Photographs or videos, where safe and appropriate.
6. ECG MUST IMPROVE COMMUNICATION
When electricity goes off, residents should know whether the problem is:
Planned maintenance;
A feeder fault;
Transformer failure;
Fallen tree;
Lightning;
Overloading;
Pole damage;
Substation problem;
Or another technical issue.
Silence creates suspicion. Communication creates trust.
THE QUESTION IS NOT WHETHER ECG HAS PROBLEMS
ECG has problems.
Residents have problems.
The Assembly has problems.
Nature itself creates problems.
But the purpose of public institutions is to solve problems.
ECG has already indicated that its technical team is stretched.
It has identified trees, storms, overloaded phases and lightning as contributing factors.
It has acknowledged that fault detection is made more difficult by the limited number of
isolators.
It has appealed for residents to provide information.
And it has appealed for additional isolators.
These admissions should not become ammunition for blame.
They should become the starting point for action.
OKERE DESERVES BETTER
The people of Abiriw and Adukrom are not asking for special treatment.
They are asking for reliable electricity.
They are asking to be able to run their businesses.
They are asking students to have a fair opportunity to study.
They are asking households to protect their appliances and food.
They are asking public institutions to function effectively. They are asking investors to see Okere as a place where business can operate.
And ultimately, they are asking a very simple question:
If the infrastructure is sufficient, why are the lights still going off so frequently?
Perhaps ECG has the answer.
Perhaps the Assembly has part of the answer.
Perhaps the residents have another part.
But one thing is certain:
Okere cannot build its future on a foundation of uncertainty.
The lights must stay on. And if they cannot stay on, then the people deserve to know exactly why and, more importantly, when the problem will finally be fixed.
So, the question I leave with ECG, the Okere District Assembly, our political leaders,traditional authorities and the people of Okere is this:
If we already know that the problem is trees, storms, overloaded phases, limited technical manpower and inadequate sectionalisation, what exactly are we waiting for before we fix the system? another transformer failure, another business closing down, another student
losing study hours, or another night when an entire community is left asking, “When will the lights come back?”
The people of Okere are waiting for an answer.
