News - Oct 18, 2022 Repairs Completed to the Healthcare Waste Incinerator at the Solomons Islands National Referral Hospital

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), through funding support from the European Union (EU), has commenced implementation of PacWastePlus Project actions in the Solomon Islands.

PacWastePlus has allocated funding to undertake maintenance activities on a number of healthcare incinerators that were purchased and installed during the initial PacWaste project delivered from 2014-2018.  Work has been completed on the first of six incinerators that will be repaired under this program with EU funding.

The process for repair of the National Referral Hospital (NRH) in Honiara began with an agreement and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between SPREP and the Solomon Islands Ministry of Health and Medical Services for repair and long-term maintenance of the facility. Then, this July a Contractor was deployed to the Solomon Islands and the needed repairs and training of NRH operations staff was completed.

The incinerator repaired was an Advanced Combustion Engineering CA30 incinerator which had not been used for some time. The secondary burner combustion damper was seized in a closed position, most likely due to inactivity. The damper was freed with a penetrating lubricant, and both primary and secondary burners were started.  Additional incinerator services were performed, and the necessary trial burns were completed.

In addition to the repairs, training on proper maintenance and operation of the incinerator was provided to hospital personnel.  Twelve staff employed at the hospital took part in training and operations awareness of incinerator use and maintenance.