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Mr William Amuna, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), has said the organisation was working assiduously to restore power to the Central and Eastern parts of Accra, which had their power off due to the heavy rains, which started on Wednesday.
The affected areas include some parts of Adenta, Tabora, Cantonments, Avenor, Teshie, Darkuman, Dansoman, Labadi, Labone and others.
Mr Amuna gave the assurance when he accompanied Dr Kwabena Donkor, the Minister of Power and his Deputy, John Jinapor, during a tour of the Achimota Sub Station on Thursday.
The visit was to ascertain the level of damage the downpour had caused to the substation, which had affected substation and the areas, which draw power from there.
He said they had commenced the cleaning of the place, pumping out of water from rooms as well as work on the transformers, after which power would be restored.
He appealed to areas which were also receiving low voltage to bear with them as they were working to give them the right voltage by the end of the day.
Dr Donkor, for his part, expressed worry about how such critical state installations could go off due to flooding and urged authorities to also consider the possibility of such disasters when purchasing such equipment.
He intimated that the energy sector would work to ensure that its installations were not affected by the rains and urged the city authorities to assist them in that regard.
Dr Donkor expressed worry about the perennial flooding in Accra, which sometimes led to the destruction of property and loss of lives.
He also used the occasion to express his condolence to the family members of those who lost their lives when the Goil Filling Station at Circle in Accra was gutted on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, President John Dramani Mahama, on Thursday, said the government had no option than to employ “drastic” measures to staunch the perennial flooding of the country’s capital city.
He observed that only a scientific and strategic approach to solving the infrastructural design of Accra would see an end to the seasonal catastrophe.
President Mahama made these remarks during a tour of some flood-hit areas of Accra.
President Mahama also expressed condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and commended the security services for their swift reaction in fighting to minimize the number of casualties.
He said: “This loss of lives is catastrophic. Almost unprecedented," adding that with other government officials he had not slept throughout the night “monitoring what was happening."
“We will have to take some measures to be able to avoid this happening in the future,” President Mahama announced.
“Often when these measures are drastic, you have a lot of sympathy and pressure not to take those measures but I think that the time has come for us to remove houses out of water ways and the public should understand that it is necessary to save everybody else,” President Mahama added.
The heavy floods had swept through Accra Wednesday night, causing devastating damages to lives and properties, rendering some major roads unmotorable.
The floods have destroyed homes, cut off electricity and forced the closure of schools and shops.
Source: GhanaWeb
