Salaga Residents Demand Urgent Action Over Years of Power Instability
Phot credit- Modern Ghana News
Salaga, Savannah Region — Hundreds of residents in the East Gonja Municipality of Ghana’s Savannah Region have taken to the streets of Salaga, demanding immediate government intervention to fix what they describe as decades of crippling power instability and low voltage.
The protest, organized by a civic pressure group called “Salaga Deserves Better,” saw demonstrators chanting through the town’s principal streets before presenting a petition to the Municipal Assembly.
In a report monitored by DM Media Online, the demonstrators said the community suffers multiple outages a day, leaving businesses in crisis and students unable to study. “Usually, you go and buy your items, and before you realize, the light is off sometimes ten times in one day,” one shop owner lamented. “When we stock goods, they get spoiled because of power fluctuations. We go for loans, and we still have to pay back even when our items are damaged.”
Others voiced frustration that persistent appeals to Volta River Authority (VRA), Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), and municipal officials have yielded no lasting results. “Our mothers who sell water and frozen foods are losing their livelihoods,” said another protester. “We’ve complained for years, yet the problem continues.”
The group also used the occasion to highlight poor road networks and called on government to “fix Salaga’s infrastructure once and for all.”
When contacted, the Coordinating Director of the East Gonja Municipal Assembly — who received the petition on behalf of the District Chief Executive — confirmed that local officials and the area’s Member of Parliament had engaged NEDCo to identify the root cause. “For the past four days, power has been relatively stable,” he said. “We’ve been informed that the issue may be beyond the local grid and requires central government intervention. The community should soon see improvement.”
NEDCo officials have yet to issue a formal statement, but municipal authorities say discussions are ongoing with regional and national power engineers to stabilize supply permanently.
Residents have organized at least three major demonstrations over the past decade in 2017, 2020, and now 2025, all centered on electricity reliability. Previous petitions led to temporary improvements, but structural upgrades never materialized.
Civil society groups are calling for the Energy Ministry and the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to investigate the frequency of blackouts in Salaga and issue a binding action plan.
Protest leaders say they will resume demonstrations if power stability is not achieved by December.
Meanwhile, local schools are adjusting class schedules to cope with power disruptions during evening studies.
“We are tired of promises,” said one resident. “If other regions have stable electricity, Salaga deserves it too.”
Read Also
