The chief and people of Onsonyameye community in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region, are appealing to the government to connect their community to the national electricity grid.
Onsonyameye is one of the oldest communities in the Ellembelle District with a population of about a thousand people.
It is a farming community with residents growing mainly cocoa, rubber, coconut, cassava, yam, banana, among others.
For residents here, their biggest headache is that more than 60 years after the construction of the Akosombo Dam, they are yet to see electricity.
Angel New’s visit to the community showed that the residents depend largely on sources of light including candles and lanterns for their night activities.
The situation compels majority of them to walk a distance of about 10 kilometers to communities like Atababo and Kanokwari before accessing electricity.
The community was provided a solar panel by the Akufo-Addo government in 2020 but the sources of power have become dysfunctional at the time of filing this report.
Some residents who expressed their displeasure over the situation said their community has not developed socio-economically over the years as a result of the absence of electricity.
A mother who gave her name as Akaisi said communication with families who live outside the community is affected especially when their phones die.
“It takes a week or more to get them charged. The distance from here to the nearest power-connected community is far. Many of our families don’t live near and we have to hear from them but because of the situation here, we are unable to communicate immediately” she said.
Madam Akaisi added that the lack of power supply to the community has also forced the youth out of the town and during emergencies, getting them to come around takes a lot of effort.
“The youth have also moved out because of the lack of power so when we need their assistance we don’t get them to come around so there are lots of problems here and we are lagging behind in development.”
Some also lamented how the education of the children is affected, saying the pupils are unable to study or do their homework after helping in the home with house chores, particularly in dark hours and when there is no torchlight or kerosene.
They disclosed that the situation has affected the Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound that serves the community and other surrounding communities in a way that drugs which need much lower temperatures at the facility cannot be stored.
They added that because of the situation, health workers posted into the area have been refusing to stay in the community.
“They don’t stay for long because their works are hampered by the absence of light. When a woman is in labour, she has to be transported on motorbike to the nearest town to be attended to. Sometimes they lose the babies en route. But if we had doctors here, that wouldn’t have been happening” Auntie Nyameke said.
They are, therefore, appealing to the government to come to their aid by connecting the community to the national electricity grid to engender development in the area.
