The high commissioner of the province of Sissili, Tewindé Isaac Sia inaugurated on Thursday June 27, 2024 at the Dr Sédogo medical-surgical center in Léo, a system of ‘sustainable cold storage and water treatment for rural and isolated health facilities in Africa’ of the Sophia project.
According to the coordinator of the Sophia 2iE project, Dr N’tsoukpoe Edem, the Sophia project was born in a context of crisis marked by Covid-19 following a call for projects.
For Mr. Edem, the objective of the project is to find solutions of less than 70°C for good preservation of blood platelets and the Covid-19 vaccine.
’13 African and European partners have worked in synergy over the last three years to achieve this result,’ he noted.
Lasting five years (2021 to 2025), the Sophia project is financed by the European Union to the tune of 8 million euros or 5 billion 200 million FCFA.
For the coordinator, this pilot phase of the project concerns four countries, namely Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Malawi and Uganda.
‘The Dr
Sedogo medical-surgical center in Léo hosted the first platform of the project before its implementation in other localities in Burkina-Faso and Africa, he said.
Dr N’tsoukpoe Edem explained that the ‘cold storage’ system has three components, two of which are for the cold chain and one for water recycling.
The representative of the general director of the 2iE institute, Harouna Karambiri stressed that the Sophia project provides an innovative solution for using solar energy to produce electricity for medical needs and drinking and distilled water.
‘It is a compendium of innovative technologies that makes it possible to offer working conditions and care to health centers in rural areas and off the electricity grid,’ he maintained.
The director of the medical center, Omar Ouédraogo, on behalf of all the staff of his structure, expressed his satisfaction with this installation.
‘Every month, we bought distilled water worth 200,000 FCFA for the operating theaters. From now on we will produce our own distill
ed water from these containers,’ rejoiced Mr. Ouédraogo.
And to add ‘that the kitchen for staff, patients and visitors is made using Sophia technologies’. According to him, these containers cost more than 200 million FCFA.
Omar Ouédraogo thanked the 2iE Institute and its partners who worked to make this ambitious project possible.
The High Commissioner of Sissili, Tewindé Isaac Sia welcomed this initiative which aims to improve access to health care while using natural resources in an intelligent and environmentally sustainable manner.
He expressed his gratitude to the European Union for its financial support. Mr. Sia made a commitment to the beneficiaries to maintain this infrastructure in good working order.
Source: Burkina Information Agency