GE Announces
Expansion of Water Scarcity Relief Efforts in Africa
GE Water
Scarcity Solutions Creating Critical Supplies of Fresh Water
October 4, 2005
GE Water & Process Technologies, a unit of
General Electric Co., joined its parent company in announcing
the expansion of its five-year, $20 million African
infrastructure and healthcare initiative. GE Water & Process
Technologies is aiding the expanded effort by providing
desperately needed water scarcity solutions to two hospitals
located in Kumasi and Kintampo, Ghana.
“Each year more than five million people die
from waterborne diseases, and in Ghana close to 70% of all
illness is caused by waterborne contaminants,” said George
Oliver, CEO of GE Water & Process Technologies. “By installing
our water scarcity solutions, patients in Kumasi and Kintampo
now have access to safe, clean water – a resource essential to
all healthcare environments.”
Both Kumasi’s Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
(KATH) and the Kintampo District Hospital were in dire need of
new infrastructure and technology crucial in providing
lifesaving healthcare efforts. GE Water & Process Technologies
is helping to improve on those infrastructure challenges by
expanding the hospitals access to healthy sources of water.
In Kumasi, GE installed several water scarcity
solutions to assist KATH, the region’s main referral center, in
serving half of the 20 million people in Ghana and neighboring
Burkina Faso and the Cote d’Ivoire. The new equipment includes
reverse osmosis (RO) filtration technology, which serves two
purposes at the facility. GE’s RO solution removes impurities
from KATH’s current water supply and also creates an ultra-pure
water source – a critical element in running five of the
hospital’s life-saving Dialysis machines. The KATH site also
received a new water holding tank, which can stockpile excess
water in a safe, healthy environment, new water holding tank
indicators, which allow the hospital to keep abreast of current
water supply levels and anti-stagnation water treatment
technology, which mixes and recycles old and current water
supplies, so that water stagnation and the growth of dangerous
and disease-causing waterborne organisms are prevented. In
addition to GE’s water scarcity solutions, the company also made
donations to KATH including a fluoroscopy unit for radiology,
ultrasounds, incubators, monitors, lighting, electrical
distribution equipment and Internet connectivity.
“The GE donations have come at an opportune
time to complement these interventions and boost the capacity of
the hospital to render better services to its numerous
patients,” said KATH chief executive Dr. Nsiah-Asare.
At the Kintampo District Hospital, malaria is
still a number one killer. Water stagnation and growth of
waterborne disease is one of the area’s major concerns. To help
address the issue, GE installed an anti-stagnation water
treatment system, an RO filtration unit, a new water holding
tank and new water holding tank indicators. The hospital, which
serves a population of 160,000, also received ultrasounds,
X-rays, anesthesia, incubators, power generation equipment and
lighting that will enable the rural hospital to help reduce
disease and lower maternal and infant mortality.
Officially launched last year, GE’s African
healthcare initiative donated the equipment to the U.S.-based
not-for-profit, Assist International, which in turn donated the
equipment to the Ghana Health Services. Assist International and
GECAD, a local distributor for GE, provide shipping logistics,
ground-level support, site preparation and on-site coordination
to ensure timely, cost-effective and quality construction, as
well as sustainable operation of the facilities and equipment.
Source: GE Water & Process Technologies
October 4, 2005 |