Some hospitals and clinics across the country have been left counting their losses following a spate of vandalism of solar components by daring thieves.
By Michael Gwarisa
The thieves are targeting mainly solar panels, inverters, gel and lithium batteries that were installed across 1045 health facilities in Zimbabwe, through a Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) Solar for Health project being supported by the UNDP-Global Fund initiative.
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.
Following the widespread occurrence of vandalism of the solar equipment, many health facilities across the country where solar systems have been installed have reinforced their security and are collaborating with communities to ensure uninterrupted security for the solar systems.
Dr Edwing Sibanda, the Bulawayo City Health Department Director said the series of vandalisms have not spared their clinics.
Most of our clinics have got solar services that is, a solar plant or solar power as backup. Unfortunately for us, some of these solar power installations have not been spared by the vandals and thieves and other people that have wrong and selfish intentions because some panels and batteries were stolen and thanks to our partners, some have been replaced,” said Dr Sibanda.
He added that they have tried to improve the security and lighting around some of these installations to reduce the pilferage and vandalism. In Bulawayo City, Njube, Pumula, Pelandaba and Mzilikazi clinics have already been affected by thefts of the installed solar panels. Thorngrove, the biggest infectious diseases Hospital in Bulawayo has since had security reinforcements installed and armed security personnel manning the solar system.
Matabeleland South has six 40 Kilowatt plants that have been installed across six health facilities from the seven districts in the province. These also include rural healthcare facilities such as Mawabeni clinic. Matebeleland South Provincial Medical Director (PMD), Dr Andrew Muza said they are working closely with the security sector to contain the rising cases of vandalism of solar equipment.
“Yes we might have had some incidences where some people might try to vandalise the solar systems that we have. We have been working quite well with other stakeholders to protect the equipment. We are working with community members, the police and security sector to help us to be able to contain the situation. We are retraining and reorienting security guards that are on the ministry of health side to deal with these case of vandalism as well,” said Dr Muza.
Masvingo Province has however not recorded any incidences of vandalism at the back of collaborative efforts between health institutions and communities.
Dr Amadeus Shamu, the Provincial Medial Director for Masvingo said, “We have told the institutions to secure those installations. Most of them have managed to fence them and we also have the community coming where we don’t have security guards, we have communities guarding the institutions. In this province, we have not recorded any cases if vandalism of solar equipment,” said Dr Shamu.
Meanwhile, the UNDPD-Global Fund project is already working on replacing the stolen equipment and strengthening community involvement to ensure the systems are protected around the clock.
Emmanuel Boadi, the UNDP Programme Manager, Global Fund acknowledged that there have been few challenges which started sometimes last year with vandalism and theft of the components of the system. He however said the UNDP-Global Fund project was working on building capacity at government level to ensure sustainability and continuity of the solar project into the future.
“We have various components in these systems that are being installed. We also have different warranty periods. We want to make sure that when the batteries the warranty period is over and the lifespan comes to an end, government will have enough resources to replace them.
“We are working with government, we are working with private sector, we are working with external entities to have a plan in place to support government to make sure that even when this project ends, we will continue to have funding to sustain the investment that we have put in place,” said Boadi.
