PURC directs ECG, Ghana Water not to disconnect meters during weekends
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has directed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Water Company (GWC) not to disconnect defaulting consumers during weekends.
It also asked the two utility companies not to promptly disconnect defaulting consumers above 65 years but rather give such senior citizens ample time to settle their bills.
The Operational Manager of the PURC in charge of the Eastern Region, Mr Jude Aduamoah-Addo, gave the directive at a public forum at Suhum.
The one-day forum, which was organised by the PURC, and attended by over 60 consumers from Suhum and its surrounding communities, was to find out their challenges in order to address them for their benefit and that of the companies.
According to Mr Aduamoah-Addo, although consumers were to promptly pay their bills, under no circumstance should any of them who defaulted in paying be disconnected at the weekend because under the normal circumstance, reconnections were not usually made during such periods.
That, he explained, prevented the defaulting consumers who would pay for what they had consumed, at all cost, from enjoying the services.
With regard to defaulting senior citizens, Mr Aduamoah-Addo said they should always be given time to pay but not to disconnect them without notification because they were prone to all sorts of challenges due to old age.
The Eastern Regional Operational Manager of the PURC, who asked consumers to always make their challenges known to the PURC, the GWC and the ECG, advised the two utility companies not to only focus on payment of bills but also how best to render their services to consumers to derive the required satisfaction.
The Eastern Regional Distribution Manager of the GWC, Mr Mark Doe, asked the public to report leakages to his outfit for the faults to be corrected.
Mr Doe, who told the gathering that the GWC would be extending water supplies to new settlements in the area, asked prospective consumers to produce site plans of their houses, after which they would be supplied with water within a fortnight:
For his part, the Suhum District Officer of the ECG, Mr Richard Okyere, said the frequent power outages in the area were being addressed to enable consumers have uninterrupted power supplies.
An Assistant Officer of the Densu River Basin, Miss Brenda Ampomah, advised landlords who had dug their own wells to contact the GWC for assistance to make the water good for human consumption.
During question time, the ECG came under severe criticism over the manner it had been operating in the area.
Speaker after speaker accused the ECG of outrageous bills, selling of meters and failing to connect their dwellings with electricity after they had satisfied conditions spelt out to them and payments made to that effect.
The ECG officials, however, debunked most of the criticisms and blamed consumers for not contacting the right officials to address their problems.
Source: Daily Graphic