- In a significant development that will be a great relief for the health sectors of Zimbabwe and the entire Africa, President Mnangagwa, President of Zimbabwe recently launched an oxygen plant to produce gaseous oxygen, liquid oxygen, and nitrogen.
- This new infrastructure is highly critical in the wake of the third Covid-19 wave hitting the country.
In a significant development that will be a great relief for the health sectors of Zimbabwe and the entire Africa, President Mnangagwa, President of Zimbabwe recently launched an oxygen plant to produce gaseous oxygen, liquid oxygen and nitrogen. This new infrastructure is highly critical in the wake of the third Covid-19 wave hitting the country. The shortage or rather the lack of Oxygen availability has been a huge challenge in the fight against COVID 19. Oxygen is also critical for basic surgeries and the treatment of lung ailments, pneumonia etc. As regards the supply of medical oxygen is concerned, the challenges faced by the African countries include insufficient quantity, poor maintenance of oxygen production plants as well as challenges in distribution, scarcity of cylinders and technical skills.
The project was implemented by Verify Engineering, a technology development parastatal under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development of Zimbabwe. The oxygen plant which was built at a cost of US$13 million has the capacity to produce over 45 tonnes of oxygen per day and meet the country’s domestic demand for medical oxygen. The balance will be available for industrial use and export. The company claims that the purity of oxygen is 99,6 percent and of nitrogen 99,5 percent. Zimbabwe becomes the second country to set up an oxygen plant in the southern African region according to the company. Most of the oxygen in the region is produced in South Africa due to their well-developed coal-to-liquid fuels and chemicals industry.
