By Umaru Fofana
In a major partnership with the UN children’s agency (UNICEF), President Julius Maada Bio on Friday launched a drone corridor which will see the supply of medical and other services by the unmanned aerial vehicles – the first such initiative in West Africa that is led by a national government.
The event in Njala in the southern Moyamba District was attended by the new UNICEF Country Representative, Suleiman Braimoh and some cabinet ministers including the Minister of Technical and Higher Education, Prof Aiah Gbakima and the Minister of Basic and Primary Education, Dr David Moinina Sengeh who doubles as the country’s Chief Innovation Officer..
The drones will be taking supplies to hard-to-reach areas especially during emergencies including natural and other disasters.
President Bio said the Ebola outbreak of 2014, the mudslide of 2017 and the country’s high rate of maternal deaths had influenced his decision in going ahead with the drone project. But there were also other considerations.
”We want to use drones for social purposes to help us in our development strides…We want to start with health especially for pregnant women. When in postpartum they need urgent blood supplies we can quickly deliver to difficult-to-reach areas using drone technology,” the president told Politico.
“For agriculture”, he went on, “we can use it to spray, to fertilise and also to monitor farms”.
Asked whether the state could afford it, President Bio said thus: “We are going to afford it because the will is there. We are going to challenge ourselves. It is a useful technology so we have to find a way to get it and make sure it works for development in this country”.
He said that with the use of the technology, “we hope to be able to save more lives [and] increase our productivity in agriculture. We hope to be able to deliver essential medication to different parts of the country”.
The corridor, which is one of only six of its kind in the world that UNICEF is supporting “promises to transform disaster management” according to the agency. The UNICEF chief of field office, Andrew Sellu said the corridor meant “access to technology to provide immunizations and deliver medical supplies to children in need in remote areas during emergencies.”
The Paramount Chief of Korri Chiefdom, Borbor Gbapie IV welcomed his chiefdom being chosen as the launch site. He said the establishment of Njala University, hosts of the test corridor, had brought immeasurable benefits to his community and the country. He said they fully supported the technology and would do all they could to make it work hence the provision of 25 acres of their land towards it.
The UNICEF Country Rep. Dr Suleman Braimoh who was carrying out his first official function since taking over last week, said “[T]his innovative project is the first of its kind in West Africa and has been designed to support the use of Drone technology for social good and to ultimately support the improvement of the situation of children in Sierra Leone”.
He said that through the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) just over a year ago, “the Government has taken commendable strides to accelerate Government efforts in development work in key sectors such as Health, education and child protection”.
He said “UNICEF in Sierra Leone is thrilled with the progress we are making to reach every child, everywhere with services and supplies that they need for their survival, development, growth and participation”.
The test corridor will link to places in the north – such as at the EBK University – for landing sites, before it is eventually rolled out to the rest of the country.
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