…No electricity, no water, poor roads
Residents of Devtraco Courts in Community 25 of Tema in the Greater Accra region, are furious at the management of the estate caring less about the deplorable state of affairs in the residential area.
From the residents’ account, the Devtraco Estates, one of the planned and respected residential areas in the country, only exist in name and not in substance.
The story of Devtraco Estates, doesn’t appear different from the appalling stories about most Ghanaian real estate companies putting up buildings for sale at exorbitant prices, but these structures develop huge defect within a matter of two years, because they were of inferior quality, and there is no regulatory mechanism on the part of the State to ensure the right things are done.
The complaints of the Devtraco Estates residents is centered on poor road network, irregular water supply into their homes and low voltage of electricity in the estate with managers apathetic to their plights, despite several pleas.
Speaking in an interview with The Herald in Tema, a concerned resident of Devtraco Courts, noted that the situation is affecting everyone, and asked the managers of the gated community to ensure that they are given the needed attention.
He cited irregular water supply from Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) into their homes which has forced the residents to rely on water tankers.
The situation, he said, is costing each resident between GH¢1,000 to GH¢1,200 per month, while large households among them, also incur about GH¢1,500 to GH¢2,000 per month on water from tankers drivers.
The resident, added that in April they experienced power outages within Heritage, Crystal, and Elizabeth estates with some phases going off, while others stayed on low voltage for days until the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) team came on site and requested that a faulty Distribution Panel be replaced. But “this replacement solved only the internal problems we faced with the phases going off”.
He lamented that “The current contribution is to replace the faulty Distribution Panel but it appears we have to hold on, with new information popping up regarding the transformer as well”.
He pointed out that faults that occur upstream will not be solved by either replacing the Distribution Panel or the transformer since the faults affected other clusters excluding Millennium and Condo.
The residents in a one-page letter sighted by this paper dated May 12, 2023, and signed by the President of Devtraco Court Residents Association, Kwame Kuffour addressed to the Ningo-Prampram District Engineer of ECG draws attention to the pattern of unstable and unreliable electricity supply into the estate community housing nearly 8,000 residents.
The letter further stated that for some time now the estate residents have had to suffer long and constant power interruptions. They have made numerous SOS calls to the ECG Faults and Complaints Unit on account of the interruptions but their plight is yet to be addressed.
The letter concluded by seeking urgent clarification and intervention to end the continuing power supply disruptions in the estate.
It was copied to the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, the Executive Director of Devtraco Limited Community 25, the General Manager of Devtraco Limited, the General Services Manager Devtraco Limited, and Devcras Governing Council.
Another resident disclosed that the Residents’ Association and Devtraco Management has for some years now raised concerns to the management of the estate but nothing has been done to remedy the situation.
On the water situation, he also called on the Devtraco management to engage with GWCL to ensure constant water supply to the estate by working on its pipelines, install a booster pump to facilitate the flow of water to other clusters in the estate.
He also urged management to as a matter of urgency besiege the ECG to address the unstable and unreliable power supply in the estate.
