Sierra Leone, September 7, 2021 – In November 2020, a contract was awarded to Aptech Africa Limited by the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD to construct and install a 100 kW Solar Pv power generating solution in Sierra Leone. The project was embarked on to provide access to clean water and climate smart technology hydroponic/aquaponic/drip irrigation, with the systems reticulated for the support of primary health care to Njala University Hospital, the Njala community, staff and students, as well as training of ground personnel for its operation, maintenance, repair and sustainability. This project has now been successfully completed.

Programme Officer for Energy Infrastructure at AUDA-NEPAD, Mr Benjamin Akobundu explained that the project entailed drilling a borehole with an overhead reservoir storage facility for a solar-powered drinking water supply to both the University Hospital, its students and the Mokonde Community.

The project also saw the construction of a 20 x 50-meter greenhouse for vegetable crop cultivation. In addition, a second borehole was drilled for a solar-powered water supply for drip irrigation both in the greenhouse and in a one-hectare crop field at the lower nursery of Njala University. This also included the construction of water storage tanks so as to have gravity flow through a pipe network to the Mokonde Community and then through a drip line network to the greenhouse and crop field.

The completion phase of this project saw the new borehole drilled and a tower built for the whole irrigation water source development that was completed in early April 2021, including the installation and integration of the solar system to drive the irrigation technology.

Mr Akobundu reports that, “The construction of the water supply system consisting of tank towers, pipelines, tap stands et cetera was started in January 2021 and completed in late February, with the water system tested at a laboratory and certified safe for drinking and crop consumption, in compliance with WHO standards. It started supplying water to the hospital, students and community, as early as February 2021.” 

 As of today, the whole works are completed and all the three systems: PV plant with containerized energy storage system including inverters and batteries, water supply system, and drip irrigation system are all up and running properly with reticulation to the primary health care centre. By mid-June 2021, all installations with the entire system components were completed and the hospital was powered. The system was tested and is performing very well.

The next activity to be undertaken under this project is an inspection by the AUDA-NEPAD inspection team, led by the Environmental Sustainability Division in collaboration with the service provider, Ministry of Energy, Planning, Agriculture and National Project Steering Committee of  Sierra Leone with the facility commissioning and handover.