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‘Dum-Sor’ Has Become ‘Dum Dum’ in Ghana: Why Another Energy Crisis After the Last One?

Dum-Sor Dum-Sor
Dum-Sor Dum-Sor

Politicians have the best selective memory of any sub-species of humans you can find on this planet. Their perspective on issues, especially in Ghana, is often shaped by their position in the political landscape: in power or in opposition.

So what is wrong to the NDC in opposition becomes right when in power, and vice versa. It’s infuriating, but it’s a situation we have learnt to live with.

A recently commenced load shedding exercise has let me cast my mind back to the last major one, which occurred when the NPP under President John Agyekum Kuffour were in power. That one occurred because of low water levels in the Akosombo Dam, the main hydro-electric power source in Ghana.

The then opposition NDC cried bloody hell, and often wondered aloud how the government could let things come to such a deplorable situation. When they ascended to power a few years later, one could at least assume that all their complaints over such a situation could lead to a better handling of the energy sector.

Instead we have had two or three load shedding exercises since the change of government in 2008. In fact in Ghana we’ve always had the light-outs people have affectionately dubbed ‘dum-sor’, but the official load shedding exercises have become much more rampant in recent times.

This recent one, caused by a shutdown of gas from Nigeria through the West African gas pipeline, is the worst in living memory. My power was out for 12 hours Thursday night to Friday morning, yet here I am Saturday morning and I have been taken off for another 12 hours.

ECG themselves are clueless, I recall hearing their spokesperson on television saying the power supply has become too erratic for them to provide a timetable. I thought they were in charge of the power supply, so who makes it erratic if not them?

Some labour unrest in Nigeria means Ghanaians have to live in darkness for a while. Why should that be the case? The Bui Dam was launched with much fanfare and promises of adding more power to the grid, much more than we’ll ever need. Yet it is here, and we’re still battling these problems day in day out.

So either water levels are down, or gas is not flowing through the pipes, we always find excuses to mask our catastrophic failures. The truth is even with everything running smoothly; the Electricity Company of Ghana finds ways to screw with Ghanaians. In fact some people welcome these load shedding exercises, because at least they then can be sure when they do and do not have light.

What are we doing to explore alternative power supplies? The sun beats us to death every single day, yet exploring solar power is not something we seem keen on. It would probably be time consuming and ridiculously expensive, but at least why don’t we explore the possibility and see where that takes us.

Every year we hear rumours that the Akosombo Dam is running low, and ‘dum-sor’ remains a regular feature in people’s lives. Our current power structure is inadequate, especially when they are subject to the whims and caprices of the weather or striking Nigerian workers. We need to explore alternative solutions, because it is a shame that 57 years after independence, the Akosombo Dam built by our first president to cater for his newly independent country of 6 million people remains our largest power supply.

For now though, we brace ourselves as ‘dum-sor’ becomes ‘dum-dum’.



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