Mozambique: Cahora Bassa hydropower plant donates medical equipment to hospitals in Tete province

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Cahora Bassa hydropower plant donates medical equipment to hospitals in Tete province

3:05 CAT | 25 Aug 2020

File photo: Lusa

The hydropower plant Hidroelétrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB) has donated hospital equipment valued at more than six million meticais (€72,000) to health units in Tete province, in central Mozambique, as part of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We hope that this material will provide assistance and cover the districts and communities most in need,” said Pedro Couto, president of HCB’s Board of Directors, quoted on the company’s Facebook page.

Included in donation are ventilators, signal monitors and endotracheal tubes, as well as surgical gloves, masks, adult diapers, soap, basins, and buckets.

“This support is a big step forward in the fight against covid-19 as we have already registered cases in most of our districts, with only five out of the 15 that have not yet registered positive cases,” said the governor of Tete, Domingos Viola.

The donation of HCB to hospitals in Tete, which currently has eight active cases, aims to contribute to the improvement of the working conditions of medical staff, in addition to supporting the fight against the spread of the new coronavirus.

The HCB power plant, which manages the dam with the same name in the province of Tete, in central Mozambique, is the country’s largest source of electricity.

The dam is the largest in southern Africa, with construction beginning in 1969, still in the colonial period, and operation since 1977.

The state holds 85% of HCB’s shares, 7.5% belong to Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN), Portugal’s energy transportation company, and another 7.5% are shares made available in the public offering operation (OPV).

HCB supplies Mozambique, South Africa and other neighbouring countries with an annual production that has been around 13,700 gigawatts (GWh).

Mozambique, which has lived through the last five months in a state of emergency, registers a total of 3,440 cases of infection by the new coronavirus, 21 deaths and 1,661 people given as recovered, according to the latest update.

Source: Lusa