An Oxygen Plant at Nkhata Bay District Hospital has been down for 6 months, confirmed by the Hospital’s spokesperson Christopher Singini.

According to Singini, repairing the plant will require close to K45 million, as it will involve hiring experts from abroad.  “We wish our local experts from the maintenance department were trained in how to repair the plant because we feel it will be so costly to be inviting experts from abroad whenever we experience a problem,” Singini said.

The plant was designed and installed by experts from South Africa and the United States, who never taught locals how to repair the machine when down. Similar projects have suffered due lack of training locals, as hiring engineers abroad is a huge expense on the government’s end. Unfortunately the private sector is no exception to the problem; locals are not trained to maintain/repair the necessary infrastructure, hence companies spend millions hiring help from abroad.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus cases in the country have dwindled, but those that may need to use the plant will suffer amidst a country that has made no resolutions towards investing in training locals to maintain/repair such equipment.