There is fire on the mountain, run run run!

PURC signs agreement with Maryland PSC

Tetekasum (Eastern Region) 11 Feb. 2000

A blazing fire swept through the farm of the 1999 Second National Best Farmer, Mr Okyere Djin, at Tetekasum, near Suhum, on Sunday night destroying life birds and farm implements worth over 100 million cedis.

The fire which started at about 11pm from the main farmhouse, destroyed 3000 three-weeks-old birds, spraying machines, fertilisers, 400 crates of eggs, bee hives, milled maize, composite mixtures among others.

Briefing the Eastern Regional minister, Miss Patience Adow on the farm on Tuesday, he said it took fire personnel from Suhum about two hours to put off the fire.

He said the cause of the fire is still unknown.

Mr Djin who is also the 1996 Eastern Region Best Farmer said he did not suspect any foul play.

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Meanwhile, in Nkoranza fire has razed down a three-classroom block of the Akropong local kindergarten in the Nkoranza district last week.

Items destroyed included furniture, cooking utensils, bowls and cups, all valued at about two million cedis.

More than 120 pupils have been displaced and are now studying under trees.

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Also in another development, the Upper West regional fire service says it has been swamped of late with false fire alarms and use of abusive language by callers, and the general abuse of their emergency telephone lines.

Mr Ernest Attoku Aklamah, regional fire officer told newsmen at Wa on Wednesday that the office received an average of ten false calls each day, with the callers insulting and embarrassing some of the personnel, especially the women, within the service.

Messages such as, my house is burning, you are too ugly, the whole of my area is on fire and other profane and unprintable words are used daily, he said.

Mr Aklamah said if such false alarms continued, the service might one day ignore important calls to disasters.

He appealed to such callers to desist from such acts, warning that the service would prosecute such callers when caught.

The regional fire officer said Ghana Telecom Company has threatened to disconnect those emergency lines if such calls continued, and therefore called on the general public to expose such unpatriotic citizens.

"Giving false alarms and the use of abusive language on the personnel of the service can create confusion in the region."

GRi../

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The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has signed a regulatory partnership agreement with the Public Service Commission (PSC) of Maryland, USA, under which the American Commission will transfer its experience in market-based energy production, transmission, distribution and regulation to the Ghanaian body.

The agreement signed in Washington will also enable both parties to share ideas and exchange programmes that will provide a mechanism for the US energy industry to transfer other experience to the PURC.

A statement issued in Accra on Thursday said Mr Stephen N. Adu, Commissioner and Executive Secretary of PURC and Mr Claude Ligon, Commissioner of PSC signed the agreement.

Mr R. B. W. Hesse, Commissioner, PURC and Dr Samuel Schweitzer, Officer of Energy, Environment and Technology, US Agency for International Development and Mr Sam Afrifa-Kyei, Minister in charge of Consular and Welfare of the Ghana Embassy witnessed it.

The statement said the partnership is part of an elaborate programme established by the US Energy Association for long-term co-operative relations between the US and foreign regulatory agencies in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Energy, Environment and Technology is funding it.

The statement quoted Mr Adu as saying at the ceremony that Ghana is the first African country to undertake a vigorous restructuring programme to ensure fair pricing and provision of good services in the energy sector.

He said the PURC is in the process of instituting measures to protect the interest of consumers through capacity building and learning from the PSC.

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