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Residents in Achimota and Mallam in Accra suffer most in the current era of load shedding popularly called Dumsor, Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor has said. According to him, contrary to assertions that the Ashanti Region is the worst victim of this load shedding disaster, it is those in Accra, particularly those connected to the Achimota and Mallam substations who have suffered most.

He said whenever there has to be a forced shutdown by GRIDCO due to emergency challenges, the two substations provide the first port of call.

He indicated the two places use about 350 megawatts of power which is bigger than what the whole of Ashanti Region uses and it was prudent to shutdown those two substations instead of allowing the whole of Ashanti Region to go off. 

But for the sacrificial role played by residents of the communities served by these two substations, the whole country would have shutdown at some point, he stated. Dr Kwabena Donkor was explaining to a number of journalists, the precarious load shedding exercise which has kept many homes, offices and companies without electricity for a number of days.

Ghana has been plunged into darkness following the load shedding regime which began over four years ago. The situation has worsened drastically with a new timetable of 12 hours of electricity and 24 hours of darkness.

This has made Ghanaians angry all the more.

At the press conference organised in Accra, the Power Minister supported by power chiefs from VRA, ECG, Gridco and Bui assured Ghanaians that they are working assiduously to end the dumsor debacle.

While he would not give specific dates as to when the dumsor debacle will end, he assured the phenomenon will end in 2015.