Fire destroys seventy electricity poles

- More than 70 high tension electricity poles were destroyed by bushfires in the Volta Region between January and February this year, Mr. Dan Acquah-Larbi, Volta Regional Engineer of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) said recently.

Mr. Aquah-Larbi, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview, put the cost of replacement of the poles at 225 million cedis.

He said the hardest hit areas, Dambai in the Kete-Krachi district which lost 40 poles, lived without electricity for about two weeks before the ECG rectified the situation.

He said the annual ritual of bush burning to flush out animals is cited as one of the main courses of bushfires and was still continuing despite warning education to stop the practice.

He called for a change of habit among farmers to burn bushes for the ashes to serve as manure and cattle herdsmen to burn and allow young shoots of grass to grow to feed their cattle.

Mr. Acquah-Larbi said unless there was a change of mentality, no amount of education would curb the situation.

Asked if there were no fire belts around the poles, the Regional Engineer said even where there were belts, the poles burnt in the middle.

He suggested that early clearing might help reduce the incidents but maintained that a change of people's attitude remained the only solution.

Meanwhile, Mr Emmanuel Sakutey-Addo, Operations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) at Ho, told the GNA that incidents of bush fires in the first two months of this year were the worst in several years.

He said while there were no bush fires in 2003, Fire Service responded to 12 fire incidents, including seven bushfires this year.