Accra, July 5, GNA - Mr Kobina T. Hammond, Deputy Minister of Energy, on Wednesday urged Members of Parliament (MPs) to use part of their share of the District Assemblies' Common Fund (DACF) to procure low voltage electricity poles for communities in their constituencies. He said the District Assemblies should also assist the communities to purchase the poles since the provision of poles was a prerequisite for qualification to benefit from the Self-Help Electricity Programme (SHEP).

The Deputy Minister made the appeal in Parliament in response to questions raised by Members as to why poor communities had to purchase the poles before enjoying power supplies.

Mr Hammond said the Energy Ministry was currently reviewing the policy of communities having to provide these poles but Members could in the interim assist communities to get connected to the National Electricity Grid.

The Deputy Minister, who was in the House to answer some questions, said 193 communities would be connected to the Grid under Phase IV of SHEP, which had already taken off.

He said the Mafi Agorve and Wudzrolo communities in the Central Tongu Constituency had been earmarked for connection to the Grid under the second phase of the SHEP-IV.

He told the House that as a result of the construction of a water treatment station at Mafi Zongo, a community also in the Central Tongu Constituency, the Ministry of Energy had awarded a contract for the extension of power supply to both the water station and the Mafi Zongo community to ensure effective operation of the plant.

Mr Donald Dari Soditey, NDC-Sawla-Kalba, asked when various communities, including Tuna; Kulmasa; Yipala; Gindabou and Nyoli Blema, in his constituency, would be connected to the Grid.

Mr Hammond said the five communities were to be supplied with electricity using "the shield wire technology under an electrification project being executed by the Volta River Authority".

He said the installation of the technology would require an interposing transformer and the "Ministry of Energy and VRA were collaborating to make these transformers available for installation at the Sawla Sub-Station and also in the communities so that they could be connected to the National Grid."