PESHAWAR:
Based on information gathered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 15 to 20 tons of hospital waste is made every day in the provincial capital alone. Nearly half of the total waste is recycled while the remainder is accumulated by the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA).
LRH
“To be truthful, we have one incinerator which is not in proper working condition and hardly disposes a quarter of the total waste generated,” said an official in Lady Reading Hospital while requesting anonymity. “But we have a new incinerator which will soon be functional.”
The officer, who didn’t know the specific figure of the waste created, said LRH has been one of the most popular hospitals across the nation. It has over 5,000 people (at least 3,000 in outpatient and 2,000 in accident and emergency departments) from across the province on a daily basis.
“The incinerator below process has some problems as some of its components are yet to be obtained,” said the official. “It also requires adequate gas–another significant issue –but we’re in touch with Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL).”
The LRH official added that the supply of gas to the hospital isn’t enough for sterilisation. He said the hospital government is connected with SNGPL authorities and the issue will soon be solved.
HMC
Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) Chief Executive Dr Mumtaz Marwat said the incinerator in HMC is out of sequence but it will burn some waste. “The left is gathered from the PDA and the hospital administration has approved Rs0.4million for a new incinerator, which will soon be installed”
“Together with all the solid waste created by KTH, we also recycle waste that comes from some private hospitals at University Town,” said Roghani.
The EPA has already sent a written notice to the health directorate, asking it to correctly dispose of medical waste as stated beneath Hospital Waste Management Rules 2005. These say the duty of waste management is based solely with the magician that created it.
What occurs following
Actually if the incinerators at these hospitals have been repaired, the issue of unattended dump is very likely to persist. This is largely due to the tiny personal health centers which lack the fundamental knowledge and dispose of their waste as’municipal waste’. The ever-increasing amount of such centers is directly proportional to the waste created, making it a threat for the surroundings as at times that the waste is just left in a pile or buried to groundwater.
