UNICEF provides Sri Lanka with new oxygen-generating plants worth Rs. 800 m

The Health Ministry has received new oxygen-generating plants and equipment from UNICEF to save the lives of children and their families, especially, during emergencies. 

UNICEF, with funding from Canada procured and installed at a cost of LKR 800 million, four major oxygen plants in Avissawella, Kegalle, Tissamaharama, and Udugama base hospitals from where oxygen will be generated and distributed using cylinders to 30 other health facilities across the country.

A handover ceremony was held at the Udugama base hospital in the Galle district where the Health Minister, Dr. Ramesh Pathirana received the equipment from the UNICEF Representative in Sri Lanka, Christian Skoog and High Commissioner of Canada in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Eric Walsh.

The project, set to benefit over three million people is part of UNICEF’s broader support to strengthen the health system to provide a constant supply of oxygen to maternal and childcare facilities, especially during emergencies.

“Access to essential health services for children and families at the most critical times, could be a matter of life and death,” said UNICEF Representative for Sri Lanka, Christian Skoog. “Through UNICEF’s assistance, these hospitals will have an integrated system to provide a continuous supply of medical oxygen to support in-patient care and emergency medical treatment, including for newborns and their mothers during complicated childbirth and children suffering from pneumonia,” he said.

Each oxygen plant can produce 20,000 liters of oxygen per hour and fill fifty, 50-liter size cylinders within a space of 24 hours. UNICEF also supported the installation of power generators so that the oxygen plants could remain functional even during power outages.

UNICEF, with the contribution of different partners, has for long supported the Health Ministry to strengthen the quality of health services for children across the country, especially, during emergencies.