The content is fine but the editing isn't. Not only does it have the dreaded excess of one-sentence "paragraphs" but it jumps randomly between topics. So I've fixed it.
US robotics company Zipline, which launched the world's first commercial drone delivery service, in Rwanda, says it is close to expanding to Tanzania. It has been delivering emergency blood supplies within Rwanda since 2016. Chief executive Keller Rinaudo told the TEDGlobal conference that he was in talks with Tanzania's government to open four distribution centres.
Mr Rinaudo said he hoped a deal would allow the start-up to fly a range of medical products to thousands of Tanzania's health centres. "Having an agile supply chain for healthcare makes a big difference in improving access and empowering doctors," he said at the TED event in Arusha, Tanzania.
Billions of people lack adequate access to essential medical products such as blood and vaccines, and more than five million children die every year because of a lack of access to basic medical products, according to Mr Rinaudo. The company charges between $15 and $45 (£11.60 to £34.85) per delivery, depending on product weight, urgency and distance. "Think about what it would cost to make that journey by car, and that is about what it will cost," said Mr Rinaudo.
In Rwanda, the company is serving 12 hospitals via a central distribution centre. Doctors or medical staff requiring blood contact Zipline online or via a WhatsApp message. Its deliveries then take an average of 20 minutes. The company says it receives multiple orders each day.
"It is a magically simple experience for doctors. We send them a message saying the blood is one minute away, and they walk outside to collect it," said Mr Rinaudo. The drones are launched from a catapult and fly below 500ft (152m) to avoid airspace used by passenger planes. They have an operational range of 150km (93 miles). The blood is delivered by parachute, and the drones do not land.
Sooo.... they just keep flying then ?
However, the World Bank has questioned the Silicon Valley-based company's true motivation. "Demonstration of real commercial deals in Africa will help raise its track record for the US market," said Edward Anderson, a senior technologist at the bank in Tanzania. He said that Zipline was "doing wonders in terms of making drones real in Africa" but questioned whether the deal - a commercial one requiring the government to pay per delivery - would go through.
But he [Mr Rinaudo] made no apology for pursuing a commercial strategy. "One of the most important things we are trying to show is that it is possible to tackle this problem in entrepreneurial ways. "It doesn't just have to be NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and foreign aid working on these big global issues."
If the deal goes ahead, the centres would open over the next four years, allowing blood, vaccines and other medical items to be flown to health centres. Zipline says it is also hoping to expand its service in Rwanda to deliver further medical products.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40935773
Africa has a way of defeating any technology more advanced than a crowbar. Perhaps entropy is higher there. My father and I did five solar panel installations in the Sahel, precisely because of the issue of the Cold Chain required to keep vaccines and blood supplies at medical outposts. We worked out a scheme which first filled a water tank, then charged deep cycle truck batteries, ran a powered water still for replenishing the batteries, then shunted to ground when the batteries were full. At night, the batteries lit a schoolroom. But most importantly, it kept a refrigerator in operation.
ReplyDeleteWe trained people to refill the batteries and keep the panels brushed clean of dust. We had one failure on this front: the medical team didn't keep the batteries replenished with distilled water and the system collapsed.
The expression everyone uses under such circumstances is TIA. This Is Africa.
When I was a kid, the Cold War produced some interesting effects, as the USA and the USSR tried to buy friends and allies. Out in Niger Republic, the USAID people brought in a Massey-Ferguson farm tractor, with a few implements. They set it up, attached the disc harrow to it, off it went in onto a few hectares of grazing land (where it never should have gone) and ploughed up a vast cloud of dust. The USAID guys left, the chief attached a wagon to it and used it to haul a few things around. But nobody bothered to change the oil in it - and it died. For a few years, at least until we left, it sat in the centre of town and children would play on it. For all I know, it may yet be there, rusting away.
TIA.
I'm always glad to see someone trying to fix Africa, I suppose. My experience, and my parents' experience has been - Africa obeys Planck's Law. It absorbs every watt of goodwill expended upon it and re-radiates that energy in the form of corruption and malfeasance. I'll never put another penny into Africa. I'm watching as a team of people my age, who grew up on the Egbe station in Nigeria, attempt to revive the Egbe Hospital, which lapsed into ruin when the Europeans left. It'll run for a while, as these things do, when the bature are putting money into it. And when they leave, like that tractor - that which costs nothing is worth nothing. Entropy will reclaim it all.