Powerless

Jan 3, 2015

Caught with my pants down.  Again.  And I knew it would happen. 

ECG—Electric Company of Ghana—the company everyone in Ghana loves to hate.  So capricious that you must always remember that, though you have electricity now, you may not have it tomorrow—or in an hour.  The power goddess may be your friend or your enemy today.  Who knows?

And I got too comfy.  Since Christmas night we have had power all day and night, every day, for more than a week (only a few odd minutes of light off for eight days)!  Wow—I don’t think we have experienced such a run the whole time we have been here.  So I let my guard down.  I left my laundry unfinished overnight in the washer—I finally had to rinse it by hand this afternoon.  The refrigerator doesn’t have enough water chilling in it.  Luckily we ran the pump last night so we could have water in our apartment, otherwise, we would be hauling buckets to flush, shower and wash.

We knew it would happen.  A run like we have had would never last.  Sam has been commenting on that for a few days now.  I knew it was true, but I didn’t act.  Oh well.

The week before Christmas was more true to form for ECG.  Power was off and on sporadically, sometimes for days at a time. No power on Christmas Eve in Dodowa, the nearby town.  No power for us until 3:00 p.m. on Christmas Day.  Thankfully, we have a generator, but the generator is very expensive to run, and some tasks, such as making soy milk, require full electricity.  And, of course, we need power to run the pumps that get water to the farm.  Finally, Emmanuel called the power company office.  “Hey, we have been without power for more than a day!”  he complained.  “What is going on?”  The bureaucrat checked.  “Oh,” he replied, “we turned power back on to your area some time ago, but it looks like we didn’t get it all the way to you.  We’ll get it back on for you soon.”  Sure enough, power came back on in a few minutes.  A few days later, Emmanuel had to call again.  “Why is the power off again?” he queried, “our area needs very little, yet you keep turning us off.”  Again, the electricity came on a few minutes later. 

Today, however, we have been in blackout for more than 15 hours, Emmanuel has called twice.  Still no light.  Somehow, it makes you listless.  You cannot think of a task you can do without power.  Often, when it comes on, I realize that I could have hand watered our small garden plot, or done some simple cleanup or food prep.  But without electricity, everyone—farm workers, kiosk owners, and I feel—excuse the pun—powerless.

Ghana is powered by one source: a hydroelectric dam on the Volta River—a huge river/lake that runs the length of about half the country.  There are discussions about how ineffective the current setup is, or how other power production companies have been put off, but over the years, nothing has changed.  Michael has decided that the inconsistency of electricity is a major reason why Ghana doesn’t progress.  You cannot plan, you cannot predict.  You can only prepare against the time that you will go light out at the least opportune time.

We read in the paper that the Ghanaian government wants to sell ECG.  On principle, I think having a corporation running it would make it much more efficient.  However, if I had the money and the skills to acquire such a company, I wouldn’t be interested in buying.  The government here is so unpredictable and corrupt that the purchase would be fraught with dishonesty.  And owning such a hated company is a death wish—recently we heard that when the current political leaders had a convention, ECG turned off their power because the leaders hadn’t paid their power bill for last year’s convention.  Everyone laughed about it, but I wonder if someone was threatened or hurt because they chose to challenge, albeit electrically, the leaders.  The censored press wouldn’t report any backlash.  If a corporation had been in charge, certainly heads would have rolled.  There is so much animosity toward ECG, that despite the peaceful nature of Ghanaians, I could imagine the CEO’s life being in constant danger. 

Perhaps there is a more sinister reason for wanting to sell.  We spoke to a local pilot recently who noted that the dam is currently lower than he has ever seen it in the 20 years he has been flying over it.  As we are in the dry season, with no rain until summer, he predicts many power outages through November, when the dam is typically refilled.  I hope he is wrong.

Meantime, we must make sure our bathroom water buckets are filled, the laundry isn’t left overnight, electronics are charged, flashlights all have batteries, internet tasks are completed, food is prepared or refrigerated early, and little ones dressed for bed before sundown, because light off may strike at any mome