The inaugurated use of a speed boat ambulance in Lindi Region will cut down the time it takes to rush patients to hospital from three hours down to only 20 minutes.
The boat will serve residents of Songosongo island and is a donation from the China Petroleum Technology and Development Corporation (CPTCD) meant to improve access to medical aid especially in case of emergencies.
The boat is valued at USD 50,000 (87.3m/-) according to the firm and will serve to transport patients to Kilwa-Kivinje District Hospital.
“The boat takes only twenty minutes from Songosongo to Kilwa…the old ferry took almost three hours to cover the same distance putting the lives of patients at risk,” CPTDC Deputy Project Manager for Songosongo and Mtwara Processing Plant and Transportation Pipeline Project, Zhao Liyun, .
Speaking shortly after handing over the boat earlier this week, Deputy Project Manager Liyun said the donation is part of the firm’s commitment it made to the isles residents last year and is part and parcel of their social corporate responsibility.
“We had a meeting with residents and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) last year,” he explained.
“The residents mentioned some of the challenges they were facing to include lack of clean and safe water and an ambulance boat,” Liyun explained.
“After the meeting we agreed to start by providing this boat and other things will follow,” she went on to say.
She pledged that the firm will now start working on building water infrastructures to help the resident access clean and safe water directly from the Songosongo plant.
She also took the opportunity to commit to handing over the gas pipeline project to the government in June this year.
“These two countries have a long standing friendship, we want to strengthen it by ensuring that the critical challenges facing these residents here get solved,” she said and noted that “…this is to be done before we handover the project so that the residents remember the firm for good things.”
One of the residents for the area, Mbisa Omari, highlighted some of the problems they are facing including transportation and shortage of nurses at health facilities.
“We have a very small dispensary…when there is a problem the cant handle it so one has to be referred to the district hospital but the problem is lack of transport,” she said.
She also called upon the government to increase the number of nurses at the dispensary there and to also employ health workers to work in the ambulance boat.
Songosongo Village Executive Officer Shamte Bungala called upon the residents to care for the donated boat.
“This boat is not for everyone who is ill but only for serious emergency conditions,” he said and cautioned that “…if the boat is used even for minor cases, it will not last long.”
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