If you have ever traveled or lived in a tropical country, you can appreciate the value of a fridge there – especially in rural areas with no access to the electrical grid. There is nothing quite like getting a cold drink from the only refrigerator within miles on a scorching hot day. However, beyond cold beers or sodas, without refrigeration, perishable foods – especially meat – are often kept in unsanitary conditions. Also many important medicines, for example vaccines, require refrigeration. So this is also a public health issue. This is a need that’s addressed by an interesting German-Swazi project:

Swaziland is one of the poorest and most rural nations in the world. Most of the villages have no running water, electricity, or refrigerators. But a new innovation is serving to make life a lot more manageable for rural families in Swaziland. The communal building in many of the villages now has a solar powered fridge. See how these responsible refrigerators are impacting many African villages.

Many of Swaziland’s villages can now enjoy cold milk and fresh meat thanks to solar powered refrigerators being installed in their villages. In a country where 1/3 of the entire population has no work to speak of and many families are suffering, this is a bigger deal than it may seem. In fact, the manufacturing of these fridges could also bring jobs and modernization to the area. These fridges are also eco-friendly and do not use the chlorofluorocarbons that are known to deplete the ozone. This is the first project of its kind in Swaziland and Africa as a whole. The program is funded by the International Climate Initiative.

From DW TV via Treehugger

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 6th, 2010 at 8:35 am and is filed under Mother Earth, Palmwine, Warm/Fuzzy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.