FAIZ ABAD (SW) – An oxygen generating plant has been set up in Badakhshan province to cater the need of local communities.
Local officials in Badakhshan say that the Aga Khan Foundation has purchased this oxygen generating plant for the Burhanuddin Rabbani Public Hospital in the provincial capital, Faizabad, with the support grant from the European Union.
According to officials, the oxygen plant was installed with the participation of local officials of Badakhshan and officials of partner organizations.
Shams Ali Shams, head of the Aga Khan Foundation in Badakhshan, said on the occasion that the average consumption of oxygen for the province’s health facilities reaches 15,000 liters per month, while the plant’s production capacity is more than 16,000 liters per hour.
Shams added that under million worth of funds were getting wasted on procurement of oxygen under normal and emergency circumstances, but now with the installation of this manufacturing plant this problem will be solved.
According to the director of the Aga Khan Foundation, Badakhshan currently has the capacity to produce million worth of pure oxygen, which makes the province self-sufficient in oxygen production and can export to other neighboring provinces aw well.
Meanwhile, the director of the Badakhshan Provincial Hospital, Humayun Frutan, said that as coronavirus spread in Afghanistan, and especially in Badakhshan, the mortality rate has risen, and oxygen is the only way to prevent it.
He added that a machine, which did not even have the capacity to store oxygen, was installed at the hospital last year to pump oxygen to other departments and to deliver oxygen per month at a high cost or used to import from Kunduz province at a high cost to the patients, but now these problems have been solved.
Coronavirus is said to have killed many people due to lack of oxygen, but recently in some provinces, oxygen generators have been built and commissioned at the expense of aid agencies.
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