The Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) has indicated that the continuous incidents of cable and meter theft are affecting utility services in the Keta and Anloga Districts of the Volta Region.

This coupled with the influx of fake meters and the burning of poles impedes the smooth operations and revenue generation of the Ghana Water Company Limited and Electricity Company of Ghana.

The Volta Regional Manager of PURC, Philip Agbezudor, made this known at a media engagement on the regulatory body’s activities in the first half of 2023.

He indicated through the efforts of his outfit 30 poles, eight meters, and two transformers were replaced, while potable water was provided to 26 deprived communities through the PURC's Pro-poor Project initiative.

He added that ECG also witnessed an increase in revenue as customers became abreast with their responsibilities after frequent community engagements on the Legislative Instrument

He explained that the PURC during its public education outreach visited corporate institutions, schools, communities, radio stations markets, and religious bodies and engaged in STC 'Evangelism' and Valentine Street Quiz reaching over 30,000 customers.

Mr Agbezudor said that out of 511 complaints received from the utility customers, 443 were concerning the quality of service, constituting 86.7% of total complaints, while billing, payment, metering, unlawful disconnection, customer service delivery, and others made up the rest 13.3%.

He said over 400 of the complaints were resolved to the satisfaction of the complainants.

“Frequent power outages in Worawora and Abotoase, limited water supply to Ho municipality as a result of the limited capacity of the Kpeve treatment plant, no flow of water at Aflao for years, destruction of GWCL pipelines by road contractors in Ho municipality, non-payment of bills by consumers, and non-delivery of bills as a result of the ECG’s CMS challenges are some challenges we identified within the period under review”, he said.

He said the Commission is working on ensuring clients of a Self-Help Electrification Project in communities including, Kedzi and Dzodze, would be captured into ECG’s system to ensure effective regulation and operations.

"Now that we are going into the political season, we encourage our politicians to work the distribution of Self-Help meters with the ECG so that proper mapping can be done before they start installation of those meters", he appealed.

Mr Agbezudor stressed the high cost of GWCL's new service connection as a major concern raised by customers and entreated the utility provider to decentralise its main lines in the communities to reduce the cost of connection.