Bolgatanga, July 19, GNA - The Volta River Authority (VRA), has attributed frequent fire outbreak in the Upper East Region (UER), partly to shoddy electric wiring and the use of too many gadgets on voltage. Mr. Alex Papanko, Area Manager, VRA, UER, who said this, explained that "When you use a lot more gadgets than the wiring can support, its puts a strain on the power supply thereby causing fire to break out". The Area Manager said these when the Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo visited the VRA regional office at Bolgatanga, as part of his interaction with workers in the region to enable him to assess progress of work and find out challenges.

Mr. Papanko urged the public to engage VRA Officers or qualified electricians in electric wiring of their buildings. He said that wiring distribution needed to be balanced, otherwise it could cause load imbalance where energy consuming gadgets are located at one area and overburden that side.

Mr. Papanko complained that some people failed to pay their light bills despite the provision of pre-paid metres adding that some of them failed to report faults in the metres or tempered with them to give false readings.

He said fire had destroyed electric poles and thieves had cut cables resulting in power outage in some areas. Mr. Papanko said that only one radial line served the Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions adding that if a fault resulted on the line at any point outside the Upper East region, people there experienced power outage.

Mr. Woyongo said government would continue with rural electrification to encourage small scale businesses and promote the processing of agricultural products.

He announced that the Bolgatanga Township would soon get adequate street light since the authorities had approved of it and urged the VRA to cooperate with the municipal assembly to ensure that it is properly done.

He expressed concern about frequent power cuts in Bolgatanga and said many departments had complained of office computers and air conditioners breaking down as a result of power fluctuations and urged the VRA management to rectify the problem.