Ghana: The Energy Crisis – Ghanaians Turn

…For over two decades Ghana has been having uncomfortable close encounters with the weather, leading to drastic reductions in the country’s main hydro-electric dam’s generating capacity. Now the dam is approaching near collapse due to a prolonged drought and the country is in dire need of alternative sources of power for the short, medium and eventual long terms.

Even without the problem of an emptying dam, the country’s energy needs had far outstripped the dam’s capacity over the years. There was already a shortfall of about 500 megawatts but between the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) they were able to juggle and kept things going with planned and unplanned if debilitating load-shedding.


Things have gone from bad to worse and even as the government is searching around to find alternatives to stem the looming meltdown so is the fault-finding also gaining in intensity. Government’s efforts have been derisively written off by an energy expert as merely trying to rely on “toys” for the job.

There’s intense debate raging in sections of the media that though the current electric energy squeeze Ghana is facing can be attributed to an “Act of God”, some timely human intervention could have ameliorated the situation. To this end “some people must answer” for their acts of omission and commission, say those who think “heads must roll”.

Accra Mail (Accra)