By Bisola Adeyemo
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is set to restore power at Appiatse and its neighbourhood in the Prestea-Huni Valley municipality of the Western Region.
The ECG also said an estimation of about GHC 2million would be used to restore light in the affected communities.
It was reported that last Thursday there was an explosion at Appiatse near Bogoso in the Prestea Huni Valley municipality.
District Manager, ECG, Ebo Sagoe, disclosed that the explosion hit their power systems leaving them in total darkness.
“Eight High Tension network, four on each side of the network, six high tension poles burnt or destroyed, including five LV poles and one transformer and its accessories constituting a complete distribution sub-station completely destroyed.”
Sagoe told the Ghanaian Times that about 30,000 residents in the Amenfi West, Amenfi East and Amenfi Central districts were affected by the disruption of power at Appiatse after the explosion.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of ECG, Mr Kwame Agyemang- Budu, and his team yesterday visited the Appiatse site to assess the extent of damage and also console the bereaved families.
“For security and safety reasons, we have stopped the operations until when they are ready, we’ll resume work to remove the metres to pave way for the reconstruction,” he hinted to journalists.
Mr Agyemang -Budu assured that ECG remained committed to ensuring that power was stabilised at 24 hours each day at Appiatse and other communities in the Bogoso enclave.
Speaking on the cost incurred due to the explosion, he said, “We are not concerned about the process of accounting, but about the safety of the community. The security and NADMO have asked us to stop and we’re waiting – for now, we have restored power to the communities within 48 hours.”
He expressed concern about stealing of metres and other equipment, saying “It’s not fair for people not to think about safety and come here to steal, but, we are here to ensure that we have more metres for us to restore power after reconstruction.”