Solar Boiler Installation Improves Medical Services and Economic Opportunities in Mzimba District
Solar Boiler Installation Improves Medical Services and Economic Opportunities in Mzimba District
Zebediya, the headman of the village, expressed his appreciation for the initiative and expressed his wish that in the future, these devices would be available to every household.
Malawi: Thanks to the installation of a solar boiler, the Manyamula Health Centre in the Mzimba District can now deliver continuous medical services, writes Blessings Gondwe.
The Japanese Non-Governmental Organization Colorbath has donated the facility's new solar boiler, which cost about K700,000. Previously, the facility used firewood to sterilise medical equipment.
Yusuke Yoshikawa, executive director of Colorbath, explained that the machine was purchased to make sterilising medical equipment easier while also protecting the environment because communities are no longer cutting firewood as they once did.
Grace Mpumulo, a medical assistant at the Manyamula Health Center, continued, "Our sterilisation process has been simplified, and we will be able to provide services to people full-time."
At Zebediya village in Manyamula, another solar boiler has also been installed, and local women are using it to run a small-scale baking business. Community member Esnart Nkosi said, "We women use the machine to bake bread that we sell in the village. It might have been challenging to purchase baking machines without the machine."
Zebediya, the headman of the village, expressed his appreciation for the initiative and expressed his wish that in the future, these devices would be available to every household.
The high cost of importing the equipment from Japan to Malawi is a problem for Yoshikawa's organisation, which is collaborating with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to spread the solar boilers to more health centres and communities in Mzimba South.
As district hospitals would be able to cook using solar boilers rather than hydro-electricity, which is unsustainable, Yoshikawa intends to work with Malawian authorities to investigate how to manufacture the machines locally.
An environmental activist named Charles Bakolo praised the initiative and urged the government to make sure that such equipment is made affordable so that communities can completely transition from using traditional firewood to solar boiler technology.
He claimed that it will prevent trees in Mzimba from being cut down.