What has happened to Accra street lights?
If the Electricity Company of Ghana is still deducting money from our electricity payments for the provision and maintenance of street lights, which areas of Accra are benefitting from the compulsory customer-support?
Advertisement
Can the ECG tell us which streets in the capital city the company ensures have lights at night?
Any visitor to Accra from another country, arriving in the daytime and leaving before nightfall, will no doubt return to their country with a very favourable impression of our capital’s street lighting, because many of the main thoroughfares display street light poles.
If that person happens to be visiting from another African country, notably from the sub-region, they would conceivably even feel envious of us.
However, sadly, if that visitor were to stay the night and explore ‘Accra by night’, it would be a very different story.
Earlier this week, going home after a function that ended rather late, the absence of lighting on some prominent streets was very noticeable. And quite alarming.
As we drove from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle flyover (popularly known as ‘Dubai’), from the stretch in front of the State Housing Company, opposite the Awudome Cemetery, towards the Obetsebi Lamptey Circle, we were suddenly plunged into pitch darkness resembling that of the deepest forest at night. Even the police barrier there was hardly visible.
Indeed, what was missing was the distinctive sound of tree bears (or bush bears) which inhabit tropical forests, to make us think we had suddenly been transported on a magic carpet into one of Ghana’s proverbially thick forests in the middle of the night. There was certainly nothing to link that road, that part of the Ring Road West, with a country which prides itself as ‘the Gateway (with a capital ‘G’) to Africa’.
That is why when we get to know the full details of the 2018 Budget presented on Wednesday by Finance Minister Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, I will be looking out for plans for lighting up Accra streets!
And if that has been left out, I pray that this critical omission will be rectified very soon.
For as long as I can remember, our electricity bills have featured components labelled as a five per cent levy “on energy consumed for national electrification” as well as another five per cent “service charge on energy consumed for national electrification”.
The explanation given for the levies by a knowledgeable source is: “Paying the street lighting levy enables the government to fix and maintain more streetlights to aid visibility at night. Improved visibility prevents accidents and reduces crime, among other (things).
We must all contribute to making our nation accident-free and crime-free.
“The electrification levy is used to pay Ghana’s contribution to the National Electrification Programme which is funded mainly from donor support. It is necessary to enable the nation expand access to electricity to all the corners of the country.”
It adds: “(At present) Ghana’s rural and urban electricity coverage stands at 76 per cent, second only to South Africa in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Yet, almost all the streets in Accra are dark at night. And I don’t mean only side streets. I’m referring also to many major roads.
If it’s an issue of burnt out light bulbs that have not been replaced, are we to conclude that there is no one in charge of that? Or that the levy isn’t enough for bulbs replacement?
If it’s something wrong with the electricity poles themselves, why not change them?
And if neither of the above applies, but it’s simply a cost-cutting measure, that there is a deliberate policy to keep Accra streets unlit to save money, is that the best strategy?
Moreover, is that not an outrageous deception of electricity customers who are being made to pay a mandatory levy for a service not supplied?
How can Accra streets feel safe at night when so many of them have no lights?
The absence of lights on many of the Accra streets is a situation that needs immediate attention. But who is to see to that?
Obviously, it has not been a matter of urgent concern to the successive city political heads, or even the city authorities, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, as it has persisted for so long.
Incidentally, that is why I found it so commendable to read a few days ago that the Ga South Municipal Assembly has acquired and will soon be installing scores of street lights.
A report in the Daily Graphic of November 14, quoted Municipal Chief Executive Mr. Joseph Nyarni Stephen as saying that all the 26 electoral areas in the municipality are to benefit from the project. How exciting! Congrats to Ga South Municipal Assembly!
Obviously functioning street lights don’t just serve an aesthetic purpose. So, my question is: what is being done with the money deducted for Accra street lights?
How much longer must Accra residents have to contend with unlit streets at night – despite paying for lit and safer city streets?
Let there be lights on Accra streets at night!