By ERHUVWU APUMAMI

Residents and business owners in Ughelli, the headquarters of Ughelli north local government area have expressed worries over the lingering total blackout experienced in the area as it enters the 7th day.

The total blackout started after Tuesday's 28/03/22 heavy downpour accompanied by hurricane- like wind and thunderstorm, ravaged the city destroying a lot of properties including electrical installations.

Some business owners and residents who spoke to our correspondence over the continued total blackout lamented that the outage had impacted negatively on their businesses as well as caused untold hardships to them and their families and urged the government and stakeholders concerned to rise to the challenge so as to prevent businesses from collapsing and crippling the economy.

Henry, a laundry shop owner, recounted his predicament, saying “business has been really poor since this total blackout started. Before now, I used Nepa light for my work then occasionally supported it with my generating set but now I have to rely fully on my generating set to work.

“Aside from the extra cost effect working with my generating set has on my business because I now have to buy more fuel, the generator cannot also power some of my working equipment like my dryer for example. I now have to rely on the sun to dry customers' clothes which you know takes a longer time.

“I am not able to meet customers' demands anymore like I used to do. And this is negatively affecting my business in many ways.

“There is not enough profit again and the work is more stressful. We are just managing to survive. I appeal to the government to do the needful by addressing the problem quickly”.

A phone repairer who gave his name as Sunny said “electricity is an important tool in our work. Without electricity, we cannot work. I now spend a lot of money on fuel to power my generator which has also greatly reduced my income. I use this medium to beg the power company to replace all fallen electricity poles in the area and restore power as soon as possible before businesses begin to collapse.”

“The situation is very bad. There has been a total blackout for the past one week. Even when they used to give us, they don't leave it for long and it is sometimes low.

“Some of my electrical appliances like freezer, washing and pumping machines are greatly affected by the incessant epileptic power supply. Government and BEDC should do something urgent because the situation is affecting a lot of things in our daily engagements.” Mary, a resident, said.

Other business owners such as barber shops, hairdressing salons, business centers and welders were not left out as they bemoaned the decline in patronage and reduced income due to the lingering total power outage and called on the government, the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) and relevant stakeholders to do the needful to restore power urgently.

As at the time of filing this report, the damaged electricity installations and fallen electricity poles were still seen lying low unattended to in some places. (Delta State News Bulletin)

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