It’s an early Wednesday morning and Sister Marian Fadzi, the District Nursing Officer and her team at Mahusekwa District Hospital in Marondera are already preparing for a hectic day ahead where they intend to vaccinate children against Measles under the ongoing national measles vaccination drive. In a few days’ time, they will also commence a supplementary Polio vaccination programme at the Hospital as well as across all other 24 other health facilities in Marondera district.
By Michael Gwarisa
Despite the ongoing power outages due to prolonged load shedding schedules which at times stretch beyond eight hours daily, it is business as usual at Mahusekwa Hospital as all critical health procedures and processes at the facility are running smooth. Mahusekwa District Hospital is among the 1,044 health facilities in Zimbabwe that have had solar systems installed under the Solar for Health (S4H) initiative.
The solar for health initiative is being implemented by the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) through support from UNDP Zimbabwe with funding from Global Fund (Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria) grants. The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works (MoLGPWs), provides technical assistance for the roll-out of the solar installations.
We have solar power running our facility and critical health processes are functioning without interruption,” said Sister Fadzi with a beaming smile across her face.
“Here in Mahusekwa, we have multiple power cuts especially in the rainy seasons so when we have such a solar system, it means we don’t go without electricity during the times when we have the power cuts. This helps in keeping all our vaccines in fridges stored under the required temperatures and ensure we keep them safe for our populations.”
She added that they were now exceeding their monthly vaccination target of 22 children per month as they were now vaccinating in the range of 35 to 40 for conditions such as Measles Rubella where vaccination levels are above 100%. For a country like Zimbabwe, where power supply is currently unstable, safe storage of vaccines and uninterrupted refrigeration of vaccines can be a challenge in the absence of reliable back up power. A single power blackout can result in the loss of millions of doses of vaccines plunging millions of lives at risk of not getting inoculated against diseases.
The Solar for Health initiative which started in 2016 has bridged the energy gap created by the power shortage affecting Zimbabwe and Southern Africa. The project also seeks to improve access to reliable energy for critical health procedures and processes at public health facilities (clinics and hospitals).
Under the Solar for Health project, a 40 Kilowatt Solar System was installed at Mahusekwa District Hospital in 2021. Other 24 health facilities in the district including council clinics and public health facilities have had solar systems installed curtsey of the Solar for Health project. Most clinics in the district offer vaccination services and they are now solar powered and capable of storing vaccines even in the midst of power challenges.
Dr Delight Madoro, the District Medical Officer for Marondera said the S4H powered solar plant at Mahusekwa Hospital has given continuity to the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) at the facility.
“This solar system has also seen us not being affected in terms of our fridges in the EPI department where we store our vaccines in the refrigerators. Also we have extended the solar system to other departments in the hospital including administration, our out-patients, in-patients and all the wards including the maternity wards and our theatre. During those power cuts, this solar system can actually last us for longer than 24 hours if our batteries are dully charged,” said Dr Madoro.
He added that in the event that the solar system develops a fault and fails to charge the batteries, the batteries can also be charged using electricity and still maintain the same voltage. He said ever since the solar system was placed at the institution, it has served as reliable backup electricity for the institution and has gone a long way in alleviating the prolonged power cuts especially during the rainy season.
Mia Seppo, the UNDP Zimbabwe Resident Representative told HealthTimes that solar systems are now the primary power source at these facilities, providing uninterrupted power for these health services such as lighting for maternity wards during child deliveries and for operation theatres, refrigeration of temperature sensitive medication.
“Additional benefits of the solar systems include reduced operational costs, contributing to reduction of greenhouse gas carbon emissions and it contributes to achieving SDGs 3, 7 and 13 in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s S4H programme is one of the largest implementations of solar in the health sector globally.
“To date, 1,044 health facilities have had solar systems installed under the S4H initiative. In addition, two massive solar systems were installed at Medicines Control Authority at Zimbabwe (MCAZ) head office in Harare to support the Chemistry and Microbiology laboratories, and the recently constructed NatPharm Provincial Warehouse in Masvingo,” said
He added that the S4H project is being expanded to 19 additional health facilities in 2022/2023.
UNDP is supporting the Ministry of Health and Child Care to mobilise resources to install solar systems at all public clinics and hospitals in the country. In addition, a solar system will be installed at the Mutare Provincial NatPharm warehouse whose construction is currently ongoing and expected to be completed in 2023.
Emmanuel Boadi, the UNDP Programme Manager, Global Fund project said , “…the Ministry of Health and Child Care led the assessment exercise which informed the selection of the 1,044 health facilities. Selection was based on a need basis, starting with those facilities that had the most need and that had the requisite facilities such as laboratories.
“The solar systems are 5kW, 7kW, 10kW or 40kW, depending on the size of the facility and energy requirements to power specific functions like general lighting, laboratory, pharmaceutical cold chain, and pharmacy. There are plans to increase the power capacity of some of the health facilities whose overall requirements are higher than the current installations.”
