National News

ISLAMABAD, (APP): There is no incinerator in the Federal
Capital for disposing of medical waste of dozens of public and private
hospitals, which being dumped improperly in garbage heaps.
According to an official of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences
(PIMS), the leading hospital of the country did not have an incinerator
for proper handling of medical waste.
Talking to APP, Additional District Health Officer Dr Najeeb
Durrani said improper disposal of medical waste was dangerous for the
health of citizens and could spread infectious diseases.
An official in Enforcement Section of Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) said the environment body conducted a survey in
which it was found that 60 leading hospitals in Islamabad, including
public and private health facilities, were not adopting proper methods
to dispose of their medical waste.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) workers and private
contractors collect the hospitals’ waste and then dump it along
with municipal waste.
The EPA official confirmed that all public and private health
facilities were violating the Hospital Waste Management Rules 2005
on safe disposal of hazardous waste.
According to EPA, all hospital waste collected by the
CDA and contractors should be disposed of at the National Cleaner
Production Centre (NCPC), the only facility with a modern incinerator,
near Attock Oil Refinery in Morgah, Rawalpindi.
The EPA, the official said, had been constantly writing letters
and asking hospitals in Islamabad to take their waste to the NCPC
for proper disposal but its instructions were being flouted.
“It is responsibility of hospitals, clinics and labs to ensure
that their waste is properly disinfected and taken to the incinerator
for proper discarding,” the official noted.
He said there was no proper data available of the garbage
collected by contractors. Nobody had been following prescribed
environmental rules while the EPA lacked manpower to take
remedial measures, he added.
On and off, the EPA had been issuing notices to hospitals and
sending cases to the environmental tribunals for violating
environmental laws but no permanent mechanism was in place for
sustainable monitoring and rectifying the situation, the official
said.