Concerned youth of Garu and Tempane districts of the Upper East Region have held a peaceful demonstration over frequent power outages which have been persistent for more than three years.
The group, clad in red and black, petitioned the two Districts Chief Executives for the area, as well as the authorities of VRA and NEDCO.
One of the conveners, Ayuonga Paul, said the Garu and Tempane districts have experienced ‘dumsor’ for four years now, hence the call on the authorities to address the challenges in the shortest possible time.
This problem mostly occurs during the raining seasons and all efforts to obtain answers from the Northern Electricity Distribution Company have yielded no results.
In a press statement, the group detailed some consequences of the incessant outages as robbery, collapse of businesses and poor health delivery.
“Insecurity: this year alone, since the problem resurfaced in March, there have been several occasions that people’s stores have been broken into, people’s motor bikes taken from them just to mention but a few. As a result of these frequent power outages, economic activities have been grounded to a standstill in the area.
“In all these, managers of NEDCO have failed to analyse the health implications this has on us. Garu-Tempane area do not have a single government facility that has a resident medical doctor. The facilities with medical doctors are private facilities whose capacities are not strong enough to enable them to purchase and service a power plan. It is sad to note that pregnant women who require cesarean sessions are all subjected to this inhumane treatment from NEDCO.”
Due to the unstable nature of power supply, hospitals that could operate surgery at Garu are always compelled to transfer patients to the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital.
In view of this, the demonstrators have given the government a three-week ultimatum to solve the problem otherwise series of demonstrations across every major market centre within the two districts will be witnessed.
The two District Chief Executives for Garu and Tempane, Osman Musah and Issaka Anabida have received the petition and assured to work collectively to ensure the problem is solved.
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