Accra (Greater Accra) 31 March '99

Mr Alex Ntiforo, Acting Director of the Ghana Standards Board (GSB), on Wednesday cautioned users of treated wood poles for overhead power supply and telecommunication lines to be on the look out for poor quality poles on the market. Poor quality poles deteriorate fast and fall within very short periods, posing danger to the public, he said. At the opening of a seminar organised by GSB in Accra for producers of treated wood poles, he said this also results in disruption of the country's rural electrification programme.. The seminar aims at educating individuals involved in the rural electrification project and to address problems associated with treated wood poles. The 24 participants are from Ghana Telecom, Electricity Company of Ghana, Dupaul Wood Treatment Plant, Volta River Authority (VRA) and Sawen Ghana Limited. Topics discussed included, Ghanaian standard for treated wood poles, certifying treated wood poles and documentation on sales of the poles. Mr William Nimako, scientific officer of GSB, said following a complaint by the Minister of Trade and Industry about the poor quality of treated wooden poles in the market a research was conducted, last year. The research, which involved all the four treatment plants in the country, found out that all the poles were of good quality. "This gave us the impression that there are illegal companies producing the poor treated poles somewhere". Mr Nimako said a standard code of practice for wood treatment would be enforced specifying requirements from the first stage of treatment to the final stage. "This will help trace the illegal companies and the producers of the poor quality poles on the market."