Residents of Tema Community Seven AZ and AI lanes have appealed to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to urgently change some old overhead electricity cables in the community to prevent imminent fire outbreaks.

The residents who made the appeal through the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Tema, alleged that the said cables were the cause of some fire outbreaks in the area recently.

They further claimed that the old cables were too close to their buildings especially their rooftop to the extent one could stand at the rooftop and touch the cables.

In addition to the appeal for the change of the old cables, some residents also claimed that the replacement of the old meters by ECG had brought some discomfort.

Mrs Ruby Naa Ago Mensah-Tagoe, a midwife and resident, claim that in November 2020, ECG Officials replaced some old meters in the area, two weeks afterward, two houses on the AZ and AI stretch caught fire which was believed to have been occasioned by the new mater.

She stressed that, “we were not experiencing any electrical problems prior to the meter replacement”.

Some of the residents claimed that the new meter was made-up of aluminium and copper, which they described as a recipe for disaster; “Our investigations shows aluminium and copper are not friends, but ECG have installed aluminium meters in our homes”.

Responding to the concern of the resident, Mrs. Shirley T. Asomani-Wiafe, ECG Tema North Manager in an interview with the GNA, encouraged residents to use ECG channel of complaint, “we are ready to resolve challenges from our customers, our doors are open.

“ECG must be the first point of call if you have any complaint but sometimes, the customers resort to social media platforms. It is difficult to resolve social media problems associated with ECG”.

On the Tema Community 7 problems, Mrs Asomani-Wiafe said the resident have not reported any incident to the ECG office; “we have not received any report of fire outbreak as a result of the meter replacement, not from the Police who normally call us when such occurrences, nor from the Fire Service and not from any resident.

“The Ghana National Fire Service, Energy Commission, Public Utilities Regulatory Commission and the Police would have engaged us if indeed the fires were caused by the meter replacement”.

She said the ECG Tema Office would investigate the allegation from the resident, “we will also contact all these state institutions to find out the truth or otherwise”.

On the issue of Aluminium and Copper being used for the new meter, Mrs Asomani-Wiafe explained that ECG at all times use Bio-Metals to join aluminium and copper together to prevent corrosion.

Mrs Asomani-Wiafe said ECG had contracted third party service providers for the roll-out and replacement of the new prepaid meters.

She said ECG Officials strictly monitors the activities of these service providers to ensure that proper work was done.

She advised customers to contact the office to make complains especially when it demanded an urgent response, indicating that they operated a 24-hour session through the phone number.

She said the customers can visit the Tema North District office and any other ECG office nearest to them with their pressing issues that needed immediate attention.