'Appropriate Technology' - Walking the Walk
‘Appropriate Technology’ - so many talk the talk but how many walk the walk?
Appropriate Technology is a concept that refers to improvements and developments to communities that are sustainable over time in components, maintenance, investment and operation.
“[The expression] developed from some significant failures in large-scale, high-cost development strategies that became inoperable because they could not be sustained after their initial set-up due to lack of infrastructure, parts or technical expertise.” Link
The expression is used the world over, you’ll hear it in international development conferences, read it in scientific papers and so many grant applications. Yet, it’s so rare to see it… Unless of course you are in rural West Africa looking to charge your phone.
MOPO50 has proven itself to be appropriate, the opportunity to charge your phone on a pay per use basis. An improved alternative to telecentres where you have to hand your phone over for charging. MOPO50 is far more economically attractive than solar home systems that require complex microfinance loans.
It is because MOPO ‘walks the walk’ when it comes to appropriate technology that MOPO was approached by Health Electrification and Telecommunications Alliance (HETA) to electrify rural health centers.
So many NGOs are in the business of putting solar on health centers in Sub-Saharan Africa, the need for electricity is well known. Yet so often the NGO’s engage subcontractors who push for massive complex systems that are not fit for purpose and cannot be maintained by local communities.
Waterloo Rural Community Hospital
When HETA reached out to MOPO and learned it was possible to put 5kWp with 5 kWh of BESS on a rural health facility for a far more affordable price tag, their interest peaked.
Last month MOPO ‘walked the walk’ with Ben Storey leading local teams in the electrification of two pilot health centers in Sierra Leone. Not only are the systems working effectively but the monitoring system installed suggests they also are being used appropriately. The close proximity of the MOPO50 hubs to the health centers selected means that infrastructure and expertise is on hand when maintenance is required. MOPO has a proven supply chain from China through to West Africa should replacement parts be required.
The impact has been instant.
At the Waterloo Rural Community Hospital, staff reported that temperatures in some rooms can get to 38 degrees, with high humidity. Before the solar installation, patients would only have fans for a few hours a night powered by a noisy generator. Now patients can sleep with fans running all night silently on the LFP Batteries, speeding up their recovery time.
Wara Wara Faith Clinic Kabala
Since we installed solar at the Wara Wara Faith Clinic in Kabala, the staff used their oxygen machine for the first time. They are now able to power a fridge which means they can keep more medicines at the clinic. Before the solar installation they had to send couriers to a distant hospital to get life saving medication.
With a solution proven that is replicable, affordable and appropriate the door is wide open and HETA is calling for a rollout of electrification of health centers in DRC. Seems HETA has found an implementing partner that ‘walks the walk’ leaving nothing but sustainable solutions and purple footprints in their tracks.
-Arron Goodfellow, Project Manager (Africa Products & Services)