India solar power: A shot in the arm for health centers
Health centers look for alternative ways to stay functional
CHENNAI: For Dr Vinayak Salunke, flashlights worth less than $10 each are one of the most valuable assets at the Vihamandra health centre in Aurangabad in India’s western state of Maharashtra. With the clinic serving a population of 48,000, Salunke must prepare for up to six hours of power cuts daily, rather like a surgeon scrubbing up for surgery. “We don’t have power back-up, so the torch batteries are vital. We check them every day,” he said. “We also monitor the temperature of our refrigerator constantly to make sure vaccines and drugs are safe. It’s become a way of life now.”
The health centre is one of tens of thousands in India with little or no power supply that are now looking for alternative ways to stay functional. Across several states in India, government health centers are gradually turning to solar energy for a reliable power supply to store their vaccines, operate infant warmers, sterilize equipment and cut the time spent caring for patients. Up to now, solar has been deployed at such facilities mostly on a small scale, not as the main source of electricity.
To change that, a pilot project launching this month in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Haryana states aims to set up replicable, cost-effective solar power plants at health centers - the first point of access to a doctor for rural residents - and evaluate their impact on healthcare delivery. The Indian Council of Medical Research and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a non-profit research institute, are collaborating to light up three centers and meet their essential operational requirements. “The aim... is to create resilient health systems in rural India, benefiting primarily women and children,” said Soumya Swaminathan, director-general of the medical research council.
“Illnesses do not come based on the time electricity is available. Any time a patient comes, electricity should be available to enable quality health services.” Nearly 35 million people in rural India relied on un-electrified primary health centers as of 2015, according to government data. One in every two primary health centers has no electricity or suffers from power outages, Swaminathan said. A 2016 CEEW report states that only a fifth of primary health centers meet Indian public health standards, which includes having functional infrastructure for electricity.
The last mile
Centres that are connected to the grid battle with an erratic, poor-quality power supply that puts at risk baby deliveries, paediatric emergencies and cold storage of vaccines, campaigners say. Electricity access is also needed for clean water supplies, communication services, mobile health applications and retention of skilled staff, they add. “We came across instances where long power cuts forced doctors to rush vaccines to another health centre 20-odd kilometers away, only to discover that there was no electricity there either,” said Aditya Ramji of the CEEW, which is collaborating with the government on the pilot project. “No power is making the last-mile delivery of health care extremely difficult,” he added. In many cases, diesel generators have become a lifeline for primary health centers, their constant hum the only assurance of sustained electricity to doctors and patients.—Reuters