The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) branch in the Eastern region has attributed its power supply challenges to the frequent burning of electricity poles, especially in the dry season.

According to the Eastern Regional Manager of ECG, Ing Michael Baah the company lost about 130 electricity poles to bushfires.

He said this is having a negative impact on the power supply and finances of the company.

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“Most of the Areas that we operate are within the Savannah Zone, especially Donkorkrom, Begoro, Assesewa, then at times Tafo, we operate in predominantly farming communities and the culture we have in this part of the country is that [they] burn [their] farms before we plant so in the process of burning their farms they set fire to our poles.”

“So far we have lost about 30 poles, last year we lost over 100 poles all because a hunter set fire into a bush because of a rat,” he added.

He added that aside the bushfires chainsawing, cable theft, non-payment of bills are also impacting on their business negatively in the region.

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Despite these challenges, the company connected 27,737 customers across the region in 2017 through government’s Self Help Electrification Project (SHEP) and ECG’s Rural Electrification Project (REP).

Meanwhile, three Customer Service Centers worth Ghc1, 747, 455.24 have been constructed to serve customers around Anyinam, Kukurantumi and Abetifi as part of decentralization of its services.

Ing. Baah said, the Company will begin creating awareness in order to help prevent the bushfires and other negative activities that have effects on their operation.