The US beat Ghana 2-1 in their first round World Cup match yesterday. Hard luck for Ghana, which had rationed electricity to make sure everyone could watch the match on TV:
Ghana has been suffering from a power shortage this year due to low water levels at hydroelectric dams on the Volta River. The nation’s utilities regulator is already rationing electricity by mandating sporadic shutdowns. To ensure World Cup viewing won’t be interrupted, Ghana is purchasing 50 megawatts of electricity from its neighbor, Ivory Coast. Power plants will also be running at maximum capacity, and Volta Aluminum, the nation’s largest smelter and a large drain on electricity, will slow production during the match.
Plumer takes the opportunity to point out that “access to electricity is a hugely pressing concern throughout Africa”:
Ghana is actually one of the luckier countries on this score — roughly 72 percent of its population has access to electricity, however unreliable. In neighboring Ivory Coast, by contrast, it’s 59 percent. In Tanzania, only 15 percent of people have reliable access to electricity. Add it all up, and some 590 million people across sub-Saharan Africa don’t have any power at all. Among other things, that’s a major public-health issue: Without electricity, many households turn to wood stoves, whose indoor pollution now kills 4.3 million people per year (worldwide), more than AIDS and malaria combined.
(Chart from Todd Moss)
The Dish 