Next on Ian Flowers tour of past EFOD projects, visited the Soroti Regional Referral Hospital. in eastern Uganda.
Eight EFOD volunteers visited Soroti in late 2005 to build a hospital waste incinerator. Based on a design by Professor Picken from De Montford University. The team hired a local labour force, led by Joseph Eletu featured below, and completed a unit capable of burning medical waste at very high temperatures.
The commissioned waste Incinerator in 2005
The still operational incinerator 18 years on in 2023
The structure needs repairing every 3-5 years, depending on the care taken by operators to control the temperature of each burn. Joseph, who is now a Church Pastor, has been involved in all 3 repairs, introducing modifications each time to improve durability.
Joseph Eletu (4th from the left) with EFOD volunteer Kat Andrasi working on a 2011 repair.
Today the incinerator is still working well. Two others have been built adjacent to it but sadly one has never worked. The third incinerator needs kerosine to ignite the waste so the EFOD built model, which starts using general waste, is still considered the most efficient.
Joseph, our Foreman, now runs a part time business building and repairing De Montford incinerators for Medical Centres. He has 7 to his name, and a team of 6 to support him. Knowledge transfer at its best.
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