<<Print>>

The Deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr John Abdulai Jinapor, has reiterated the appeal to Ghanaians to switch off their fridges for 90 minutes during the World Cup tournament in order to preserve energy. �Let�s, at least, during the World Cup and for the period that we are watching matches, switch our fridges off for just 90 minutes, so that everybody can watch the match in his or her house,� he said. Mr Jinapor, who was making a case for the effective use of energy in the country, said even though the peak demand for energy was about 2,000 megawatts, anytime it rained, it was reduced to about 200 megawatts because most consumers did not use some of the equipment that consumed electricity. Such equipment, he said, included fridges, generators and air conditioners. He was speaking at the launch of two books, �Lake of Life: Celebrating 50 Years of Volta River Authority� and �Field Guide to The Volta River Basin�, authored by Professor Edward Solomon Ayensu, a Development Advisor on Science and Technology to the African Development Bank, for the Volta River Authority (VRA) in Accra yesterday. About books The launch of the books, which were commissioned by the VRA, was part of activities to celebrate the first 50 years of the authority, with emphasis on energy infrastructure development and a strategic focus on the VRA�s contribution to the economy of Ghana. Field Guide to the Volta River Basin serves as a primer to attract students and tourists to the rich flora and fauna of the Volta Basin, thereby helping to celebrate the great diversity of the Volta Lake Basin. Laudable initiative Mr Jinapor lauded the VRA for its efforts at taking up the initiative to write about the history of the authority, as well as explore the tourism potential in the Volta Basin. He said the move would particularly foster the learning of relevant corporate culture, knowledge, skill set, attitude and values, adding, �Indeed, without an institutional memory, we will literally lose our identity.� �Dumsor, Dumsor� is temporary In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the VRA, Mr Kirk Koffi, said the current challenges in the energy sector were only temporary. He said the authority still supplied about 35 kilowatt hours of electricity every day and shed off just about 20 hours a day. However, he said the authority had some few challenges with its units in Takoradi and that was why the country currently faced energy challenges, debunking rumours that the unstable power supply was as a result of a sabotage or inefficiency on the part of the VRA. He gave an assurance that the VRA and the government were doing whatever they could to make sure measures were put in place to solve the energy challenges within the shortest possible time. Prof. Ayensu said the decision to put the activities of the authority into a book was a step in the right direction, as it captured an aspect of the history of Ghana which was tied around the establishment of the VRA.