Persistent bushfires in the Afram Plains district of the Eastern region have caused serious damage to wooden electricity poles carrying power lines from the Kwahu South district to the Afram Plains.

Most of the treated wooden poles have been seriously burnt and need immediate replacement to avoid any disaster in the area. The situation caused a power black-out in the area for almost two weeks recently.

When this reporter traveled to the area last week, he could count as many as 86 of such damaged poles between Ekye-Amanfrom and Donkorkrom alone. The same situation exists in other areas in the district. According to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the treated poles cost a lot of money and if they are allowed to be destroyed, the already cash-strapped company would have to spend millions of cedis in replacing them.

A source at the company told Chronicle that the ECG spent over ?27 million to replace eight of the badly damaged poles between Odumasua and Samanhyia along the Ekye-Amanfrom and Donkorkrom route before power could be restored in the recent black-out.

That means the company needs several millions of cedis to replace the rest of the damaged poles, which are posing a danger to the inhabitants in the area because if any of them fell down, the live cables would spark off fire or electrocute unsuspecting passers-by.

Ironically, most of the burnt poles were very close to some of the communities but no one cared to protect them.

ECG sources said, "This is not the first time such an incident has occurred since bush burning had become an annual ritual in the area.

Chronicle further gathered that the ECG awards contracts annually to companies to clear the bushes under the lines to prevent them from catching fire and damaging the poles, but most of the companies either fail to perform the job or do it haphazardly and yet manage to collect their contract monies from the ECG.

The paper was informed that those contracts are mostly awarded in Accra or the regional capital, making the local authorities incapable of supervising such jobs.

Meanwhile, a committee has been set up by the Afram Plains district assembly to recommend appropriate measures to curb the situation.

A source on the committee told Chronicle that among its recommendations would be a call for the local communities to be contracted to clear the bushes under the lines, and protect them from bushfires until after the dry season before payments are made.

The situation in the Afram Plains is not an isolated one since the electricity poles in many of the rural communities throughout the country, according to information available to the paper, are being destroyed by bushfires and therefore need concrete measures to control the situation.