By Albert Oppong-Ansah
Accra, July 27, GNA – Kathrine Korang, is a resident of Akwasi Addea, a farming community in Kwahu Afram Plains South, Eastern Region of Ghana. She got her COVID-19 vaccine shot without hassle.
“My husband and three of our five children that qualified per the requirement, have also received their jabs,” she narrates.
But, for the new dawn, it would have taken more than a month for Kate’s household and about 400 community members who are predominantly farmers to be vaccinated.
This is because, the Akwesi Addea Community Health Planning Service (CHPS) compound, just like other communities in sub-Saharan African countries, has no access to electricity.
The fitting of a two-kilowatt solar system, which has the capacity to power a fridge to store essential vaccines for children and pregnant women, by a German non-governmental organisation has made it possible.
Other isolated, low-income and marginalised CHPS compounds in communities including Praprababida, Koranteng Kranchie, Dim-Sakabo and Anidzi that were operating in the dark have been light-up through the power of renewable energy.
Kate is of the view that the provision of solar power has brought some form of equality in healthcare delivery explaining that, “those of us living here are not being left behind as we used to.”
The World Health Organisation and African Union, have admonished countries to ensure that citizens enjoy the right to health without discrimination on the grounds of race, age, ethnicity or any other status.
The joy expressed by Kate was echoed by many of the residents the GNA spoke with in the Akwasi Addae community.
Ghana’s electricity access rate stands at 86.63 percent (2021), with 50 percent of rural residents and 91 percent of urban residents connected to the electricity grid, according to the International Trade Administration of U.S. Department of Commerce.
While the country is ranked among others with the highest national electrification rate in Sub-Saharan Africa, there are still remote, isolated, and island communities located within the Volta Lake catchment where grid power does not reach.
Mr Joseph Dwomor Ankrah, the Manager of Ghana’s National Cold Chain says one of the challenges Africa faced during the COVID-19 was storage of “time and temperature sensitive product” vaccines, especially those in hard to reach communities.
“It’s a ten-dose vial. When it is opened, within six hours, it needs to be discarded, like most vaccines,” he explained in an interview.
Over the years, vaccination programmes in Africa have been met with the challenges of inadequate storage systems due to limited funds to power cold chain…This usually results in expiration and inactivation of the products evident in most developing nations (Guichard S, Hymbaugh K, Burkholder B, et al.)
“The scale of COVID-19 delivery is unprecedented – countries have never had to launch so much product, so fast, to such diverse populations, while navigating an evolving product and pandemic landscape,” says Mike Brison, a cold chain expert.
Together, these health centres in the Kwahu Afram Plains South have administered 26,811 doses of COVID-19 vaccines out of the national total of 17,409,005 as of June 30, 2022.
The Kwahu Afram Plains South District Health Director, Mr Richard Essien explains that one key requirement of vaccination programme like the COVID-19 was storage under specific temperature in a vaccine fridge to ensure potency.
At the national and regional levels, Moderna and Pfizer are stored in ultra-cold but at the district and facility levels, all vaccines are stored in two to eight degrees Celsius to be maintained even after opening the vial.
In the past, he recalls that nurses had to schedule community members for weekly vaccination sessions.
“We had to procure the services of community motor riders to travel with the nurses to the sub-district on a motorbike on an unmotorable road. Some travelled as far as 25 kilometers (In-and-out) to where the facility has a vaccine fridge to pick doses of vaccines and return the remainder for appropriate storage if there were left over,’ he said.
“The old system took a long time, required some financial cost. The travel time and risk involved made the vaccination programme tedious. Now, as I speak with you, vaccination is on-going, so, clients can walk to the centres to take their vaccine,” he added.
According to Mr Essien, lighten-up facilities and powering vaccines fridges with renewable sources of energy has transformed health service delivery in the area.
Aside supporting a cold chain system to store vaccines, he says medical staff no longer refuse posting to the area and are comfortable working in these rural communities.
Conducting deliveries at night with flashlight is now a thing of the past, he noted.
Government’s policy is aiming at scaling-up renewable energy penetration by 10 per cent by the year 2030 through increased private sector partnerships.
Mr Seth Mahu, the Deputy Director for Renewables and Alternative Energies at the Energy Ministry told the GNA that the Ghana Scaling-Up Renewable Energy Program Mini grid and Net metering with Solar project involving the development of 35mini grids in the Volta Lake region and the deployment of 12,000 units of roof-mounted net-metered solar systems has commenced.
By the year 2025, he says, the project would also involve the deployment of up to 11,000 stand-alone solar home systems within the lake side and island communities of Ghana.
The overall project cost is estimated at USD 85.18 million comprising the Mini grid component (US$40.29 million) and the Net metering component (USD 44.89 million) and would be financed through African Development Fund (US$ 27.39 million); Climate Investment Fund–US$ 28.49 million; Government counterpart funding amounting to US$16 million; and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs amounting to US$13.30 Million.
The direct beneficiaries of the project include 59 communities across nine island districts through mini grids; 505 communities in 11 districts through standalone solar systems; 1,089 public buildings; 4,910 households and 6,001 SMEs under the solar net metering component.
These projects and the operations of nuclear power would support Ghana’s clean energy transition, honour climate action obligation while helping to address the Sustainable Development Goals Seven, which talks about universal access to energy.
GNA