Partnership provides protection to rural communities
Government and academia are uniting to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the Eastern Cape
Collaborative work between the Eastern Capebased Rhodes University and the province's government is reskilling public servants and delivering sanitisers to rural communities, all in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
What started out as an effort to produce sanitisers for the university, which has over 8 200 students, is now a social relief programme partnership between the institution and the Department of Rural
Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR) in the Eastern Cape. The programme has already produced over 1 000 litres of an 80 to 83 percent alcohol-based sanitiser.
Rhodes University's Professor Rod Walker is working with scientists
from the DRDAR to produce sanitisers that are given to rural communities and farmers. Prof Walker, who oversees the project, has trained staff from the department on the production of the sanitisers.
He is also helping DRDAR develop its own fully functioning sanitiser manufacturing plant at its Stutterheim-based research station, the Dohne Agricultural Development Institute.
Contributing to the fight against COVID-19
Walker, who is a professor of pharmaceutics and was the first-ever academic to receive a South African Pharmacy Council Pioneer Pharmacy Award, started the production of the sanitisers in March. The first batches given to the provincial government were used by the Eastern Cape Department of Health.
“I started the project for Rhodes University. The university had a standing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the DRDAR and on the basis of that MOU, the department asked Rhodes University for sanitisers and they came to an agreement.
“As a healthcare professional I wanted to make a contribution to the fight against COVID-19 and I felt that was the best way of doing it,” he says.
The department says the internal production of the sanitisers is a move to ensure the safety of workers in the agricultural sector. Rural Development and Agrarian Reform MEC Nomakhosazana Meth says during visits to farms they noticed that farm owners were observing the regulations but they needed to be supported with personal protective equipment and sanitisers.
The team trained by Prof Walker is made up of five scientific technicians. When fully operational, 900 litres of sanitiser will be manufactured each day.
Water scarce areas
Control scientific technician Bulelwa Ngcangathi says local farmers, people in rural communities, Stutterheim Hospital, Amathole Old Age Home and workers at the research station are some of the programme's beneficiaries.
The production of the sanitisers by the department is in line with its mandate to improve the quality of life for those in rural areas. “The sanitisers will be made available in water scarce areas as the department seeks to deliver on its goal of helping improve the quality of life for people in those areas,” she says.
The sanitisers, produced at the Dohne Agricultural Development Institute, are made in 25-litre containers. The department buys the raw materials used in the manufacturing of the sanitisers. The sanitiser is made up of an 83 percent ethanol (an alcohol), hydrogen peroxide, glycerol and sterile distilled or boiled cold water mixture. The formula used is recommended by the World Health Organisation.
“The production follows very stringent protocols and the process is recorded at all times to ensure traceability and confirmation of quality,” says Prof Walker.
In another DRDAR effort to assist farmers in the fight against COVID-19, the Tsolo Agricultural and Rural Development Institute, a college owned by the department, is currently producing cloth face masks which are also distributed to farms.