General News of Monday, 23 March 2015

Source: starrfmonline.com

'Dumsor': Ghanaians must show “rage” at Mahama Govt

Businessman and former Chairman of Kumasi Asante Kotoko Herbert Mensah have charged Ghanaians to show “rage” at the Mahama administration over the erratic power supply, popularly known as ‘dumsor’ in the country.

He said although the existing power situation cannot be blamed entirely on the current administration, it is important that clear timelines are communicated to Ghanaians by officialdom as far as fixing the problem is concerned.

“I do feel for the people of this country, if you are wealthy, you can just get on the plane and look at Ghana from a distance but this is our country and we must look at it.

“If you look at it, your heart must bleed and your chest must heave and I just wish that people must get that sense of rage; the rage that can be transmitted to officialdom.

"And I think that officialdom must understand and feel the pain of the people,” the President of the Ghana Rugby Football Union stated in a monologue video posted on his Facebook wall.

He continued: “They must give us a historical breakdown of where we are, how we got here and how we are getting out of here. And let’s start getting people take responsibility for the mess that they are creating”.

Ghana’s energy crisis has worsened in recent years, especially in the past few months, with the authorities blaming the situation on low water level in the Akosombo, Bui and Kpong dams, and also the lack of gas to power the country’s thermal plants.

Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor has explained that the country is shedding close to 440 megawatts of power during off-peak periods and 650 megawatts during peak periods as against planned 250 and 350 Megawatts for those same periods.

Both the Minister and President John Mahama have all given the assurance that a lot of investments in thermal energy production have been made, which are expected to impact positively on the country’s power supply in the future.