POST 01037E : SOLAR REFRIGERATOR

POST 01037E : SOLAR REFRIGERATOR Follow-up on Posts 01019E, 01027E and 01032E 10 January 2007 _______________________________________ This posting contsins two contributions. The first is from Brigitte Touré (mailto:[email protected]) from UNICEF/WCARO and the second from Terkulah Ben Alagh (mailto:[email protected]) also from UNICEFD but the Bauchi sub-office in Nigeria. _______________________________________ Dear all, In term of solar fridges, may I give the southern Sudan experience: it was not successful for mainly three reasons 1) You need to have available within the country specialized technicians for maintenance, in southern Sudan it was not the case 2) The environment should be secured: solar panels are attractive items often stolen, therefore most of the solar fridges were regularly looted 3) The cost of acquisition is twice expensive than other fridges (e.g SIBIR) Season's greetings, Best regards, Brigitte Dr Brigitte Adjagba Touré, Conseiller Régional Polio / Immunisation UNICEF - Bureau Régional pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre Yoff, Dakar, Sénégal ----------------------------------- Bob I agree with you altogether about the land mass and the access to trained personnel for repairs. I just wonder is solar technology so esoteric that the capacity (and confidence) of these local repairmen cannot be enhanced to support? 120,000 square kilometers is not absolutely small but I guess you are comparing this to some countries eg Nigeria, Congo DR etc. In this sense, it becomes picayune. It seems to me the way to achieve the desired results is to increase the number of skilled technicians available to address solar problems as soon as they occur. Electricity's reach is increasing slowly but with public sector reforms and cost recovery schemes all over the developing world, it is doubtful that many of the physically unreached will benefit too much even when this barrier is broken...the economic barriers remain to be surmounted. So I honestly see solar technology providing the means of extending immunization coverage for a while yet. Rgds Terkula Ben Alagh , APO EPI , UNICEF D Field Office , Bauchi, Nigeria. ______________________________________________________________________________ All members of the TechNet21 e-Forum are invited to send comments on any posting or to use the forum to raise a new discussion or request technical information in relation to immunization services. The comments made in this forum are the sole responsibility of the writers and do not in any way mean that they are endorsed by any of the organizations and agencies to which the authors may belong. ______________________________________________________________________________ Visit the TECHNET21 Website at http://www.technet21.org You will find instructions to subscribe, a direct access to archives, links to reference documents and other features. ______________________________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to : mailto:[email protected] Leave the subject area BLANK In the message body, write unsubscribe TECHNET21E ______________________________________________________________________________ The World Health Organization and UNICEF support TechNet21. The TechNet21 e-Forum is a communication/information tool for generation of ideas on how to improve immunization services. It is moderated by Claude Letarte and is hosted in cooperation with the Centre de coopération internationale en santé et développement, Québec, Canada (http://www.ccisd.org) ______________________________________________________________________________