- Gumani residents face 9-day power outage, forcing them to sleep outside.
- Businesses, including tailoring shops, are impacted, with some relocating to homes.
- Residents plead with government and media to intervene, struggling to access basics.
- NEDCo is addressing the issue, replacing the transformer and upgrading distribution lines.
Residents of Gumani, a suburb of Tamale in the Northern Region, are facing a severe crisis as a prolonged power outage enters its ninth day, leaving them in a state of desperation and discomfort. The prolonged blackout has forced residents to sleep outside their homes, exposing them to mosquito bites and harsh weather conditions, making life unbearable for them.
Businesses in the area, including tailoring shops, have been severely impacted, with some owners relocating their operations to their homes to continue serving customers ahead of the upcoming Eid celebrations. Local drink sellers, who rely heavily on electricity to operate their businesses, have also been affected, struggling to make ends meet.
Residents are pleading with the government and the media to intervene and help resolve the situation, which has made life unbearable for them. They are struggling to access basic necessities like water and food due to the lack of electricity.
A resident, who spoke to Channel One News, expressed their frustration, saying, “Gumani is a waterlogged area, and we are suffering. Mosquitoes are everywhere, and those who use electricity for their work are suffering. Our local businesswomen who make local drinks are suffering too. Everything has gone bad because it’s when you sell that you get something to feed your children, and without electricity, you can’t do anything with it.”
The assemblyman for the Gumani/Nyanshegu electoral area, Osama Mohammed, has assured residents that the issue is being addressed by the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo). According to him, the outage was caused by an overload of the transformer serving the area, which has since been replaced.
However, the new transformer’s capacity is not sufficient, and NEDCo is working to add another transformer to resolve the issue. Mohammed explained that the company is working to upgrade the distribution lines and add another transformer to ensure a stable power supply to the area.
Mohammed said, “They told us the transformer is damaged, so they’ll work on it for us. Yesterday, they changed our transformer, and the capacity is not up to the old one, so they said they are to add another transformer. So, after finishing yesterday’s work, there was a merge that caused the problem, so they traced the merge and told us today they’ll come and correct the issue and solve the problem once and for all.”
The assemblyman is hopeful that the issue will be resolved by the end of the day, but efforts to speak to NEDCo workers on site were unsuccessful, leaving residents anxious and waiting for a resolution to the prolonged power outage.
