Biomedical waste hazard raises ugly head in state

Panaji: Goa’s health care parameters receive encomiums at the national level, but the bio-medical waste generated by the states 100-odd medical institutions and few thousand clinics continues to be dumped along with general waste, exposing garbage workers and the public to a massive health risk.
In the absence of a centralised facility to treat bio-medical waste, the Goa Medical College (GMC) and hospital handles a small quantum. An autoclave/incinerator set up about two years ago treats the waste generated at GMC and other government hospitals.

“Besides GMC’s bio-medical waste, we also receive some from CCP and district hospitals,” medical superintendent, GMC, Dr S M Bandekar said.

Goa’s healthcare sector, which includes hospitals, clinics and veterinary clinics generate an estimated 180 tonnes of biomedical waster per month, as per a study two years ago. But successive state governments have not prioritised setting up of a centrally-located common biomedical waste treatment facility despite the quantum of the garbage generated only increasing.

All bio-medical waste — infectious or biohazardous — which is not handled at the state’s premier government hospital, follows the municipal solid waste route to the disposal system, raising health and environmental concerns. “Most of the waste ends up being burned or dumped clandestinely or enters the general waste collection system as the government has done little to tackle the problem,” an environmental activist said.

Handling and transportation of biohazardous waste requires precautions under provisions of the Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016. “It needs to be handled with care and transported in special vehicles,” an official said.

But throwing all precautions to the wind, the state, which is already struggling to deal with a massive solid waste management problem, has placed a proposal to set up a common biomedical waste treatment facility at Kundaim on the back burner.

In July 2015, the government had constituted an expert committee headed by then Goa state pollution control board (GSPCB) chairman, Jose Manuel Noronha. The committee was entrusted with various tasks, including supervising and monitoring the process to set up the plant. “The facility will comprise an effluent treatment plant, a sewage and chemical treatment facility within the complex,” a source said.

However, the proposal to set up the facility has been stuck for a couple of years even as an environmental impact assessment (EIA) was to be carried out to set it up.

A pollution board official said that all hospitals and clinics, including government-run institutes, need to have a deep burial facility. They also need to have an incinerator, but very few have them.

Also, none of the civic bodies or panchayats in the state, as confirmed by a Goa urban development agency (GSUDA) official, collect bio-medical waste.

“Medical institutes are not serious about treating their bio-medical waste. They are more than happy to get rid of it anyhow,” an official said.

“When it comes to waste, the government has other priorities, and bio-medical waste, is certainly not one of them,” an official said.

The state government has now proposed to set up a common facility at Pissurlem in North Goa, but it will take a while before the plan materialises, sources said.