hana:

The entire country was last Monday thrown into total darkness due to what the Volta River Authority (VRA) described as "system failure". Before this black out, consumers suffered intermittent power outages thus causing damage to electrical gadgets. The ongoing 12th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which is being attended by several heads of state and august bodies, was also not spared this national disgrace. Power went off at the conference hall before it was finally restored.

Earlier in January this year, Ghana suffered another disgrace during the African Cup of Nations tournament when the flood lights at the Sekondi Sports stadium went off just as the two teams were about to start their match. It took some fifteen minutes before power was restored for the match in question to start. In this particular case the VRA again blamed the situation on 'system failure' at the stadium.

The Chronicle thinks that Ghanaians can no more sit down unconcerned for them to be humiliated in the eyes of the international community. What happened at the Sekondi stadium should have guided the VRA to put the necessary measures in place to ensure continuous supply of power during the UNCTAD conference. Power outages are not news to Ghanaians but heads of state and other foreign dignitaries would surely deal with such intermittent power supply as serious diplomatic lapses. This unfortunate situation could also affect our chances of hosting international tournaments or conferences in future.

Though the VRA has always been howling that most of their equipment are outmoded, that should not be an excuse to render such a poor service to the Ghanaian consumer who is now paying high tariffs for the power he or she consumes. Somewhere last year, we suggested to both the VRA and the government to start exploring other sources of energy such as solar and wind turbines. Even a Developed country like Germany is vigorously pursuing this policy, which is helping the government to free itself from sourcing for money to produce power. Individuals are producing the energy to power their homes from the above-mentioned sources and even get extra to sell to the government.

The German parliament for instance does not depend on power supply from the national grid. It produces its own power from solar panels. Ghana could have also done same to free herself of the burden of always looking for money to produce power to satisfy domestic use. Unfortunately our policy planners and engineers are not prepared to listen to suggestions, especially those coming from the media, hence the deepening of our woes. Until our officials are prepared to listen we shall continue to find ourselves this quagmire.

It is our contention that we can never achieve the middle-income status by the year 2015 as projected, if we continue to rely on such erratic mode of producing power, which is needed for industrial growth. Until the mid 1980s, China was still classified as a third world country but today their success story is there for everybody to see. If we desire to achieve their status, then we also need to follow their footsteps by learning from them and the western countries as to how they went about it. We cannot continue to pride ourselves as the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence when we cannot supply regular or reliable energy to power industries.