By Ebele Orakpo

One of the Covid-19 protocols as espoused by the WHO and the National Centre for Disease Control is the regular washing of hands under running water with soap and use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer. This is believed to kill the viruses that may be on the hands.

Prevention, they say, is better than cure so in response to this life-saving measure, Lagos-based PSC Solar, a solar electricity and renewable energy total solutions manufacturer, came up with its new innovation, the solar-powered hand wash/sanitizer stations.

Speaking during the product launch in Lagos, the Senior Project and Design Engineer, Mr. Emmanuel Ajayi, noted that the portable Covid-19 hand washing/sanitizing stations were proudly Nigerian as they were conceptualised, designed and built in Nigeria by Nigerian engineers using 100% local materials.

“It is high time Africans started looking inward for solutions to problems rather than sitting around and waiting for others to provide solutions for us. This is our own contribution to the excellent job that Lagos State and federal governments are doing towards the fight against Covid-19,” Ajayi said.

He noted that the solar-powered hand wash stations are specially designed for use at schools, churches, mosques, event centers,  government buildings, banks, offices, political rallies, building estates, shopping centers, commercial bus depots, train stations, etc and anywhere large numbers of people visit.

“They are contactless, portable, automatic /autonomous and run 24 hours a day, all the time using solar power during the day and embedded battery power at night.”

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Unlike the usual practice of touching the soap container, the tap and the hand sanitizer in the process of washing the hands, these wash stations operate without the user touching it which helps to further protect people against the virus.

“The solar-powered hand wash machine forces users to wash hands with virucidal/antibacterial soap which is dispensed from a contactless motion sensor soap dispenser, users also rinse their hands with clean water dispensed from a contactless motion sensor tap as well as sanitize hands with alcohol- based hand sanitizer equally dispensed from a contactless motion sensor dispenser,” explained Ajayi.

He added that the solar-powered hand wash/sanitizer station comprises of 85W solar panel, 12V/60A PWM Solar charge controller, 12V/7AH battery, DC water pump and other local materials procured here in Nigeria.

Vanguard