Indian Express 19.08.2009
City awaits bio-medical waste, garbage treatment plants
It will be a year in September since a blast at the bio-medical waste treatment facility at Kailash crematorium near Naidu Hospital killed seven of its employees. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) closed down the facility and till date the authorities have been unable to find an alternative treatment facility for city’s bio-medical waste. The result: about 1,250 kg of hazardous bio-medical waste gets carried to Chinchwad, Talegaon, Satara and Taloja (some 140 km from Thane) for treatment.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) cancelled its contract with Sun Enviro Management Private Limited that was running the bio-medical waste disposal plant following the accident. It has been only two months that Passco Environment Solutions has been awarded the contract to upgrade the bio-medical waste facility at Kailash crematorium and the new facility will start working next month.
But the undue delay in restarting the treatment plant has been questioned as the new facility is coming up exactly where the earlier one was situated; there was no land acquisition or other time-consuming issues involved. Since January 2009, Passco, that is already handling the bio-waste treatment in Pimpri-Chinchwad, has been picking up the waste from hospitals/ clinics in the city.
“So far we have three vehicles collecting the waste from over 700 hospitals and 1,200 clinics. Four more vehicles will soon be pressed into service. The work was like building a factory here,” said Pradeep Mulay, director, Passco. The incinerator will have the capacity to dispose of 150 kg bio-medical waste every hour.
“Lessons need to be learnt especially as Pune has seen many deaths due to swine flu. Improper handling of the bio-medical waste can lead to a larger health hazard. People are not careful about disposing of used masks. This is scary as the virus, if present, can last from two to eight hours on a solid surface. A city like Pune should have had an immediate alternative in place instead of sending the waste so many kilometres away, “ said Dr Dilip Sarda, city unit chief of the IMA.
According to P K Mirashe, regional officer, MPCB, notices had been served to several doctors for not properly disposing their waste. It was only after the threat of cancelling their registrations that several doctors had paid fines and joined the waste disposal system.
Garbage dumping
With a December deadline for closure of the dumping of garbage at Uruli Devachi village staring at the city, the PMC is yet to identify an alternative site for dumping city’s 1,300 tonnes of garbage generated every day. “The civic body has given assurance to villagers of Uruli Devachi that dumping of garbage will be stopped by December. The civic body is talking to the district collectorate about the issue,” deputy municipal commissioner Suresh Jagtap said. A couple of alternative sites have been located, but no concrete decision has been taken yet. He said, “The civic body is also constructing small bio-gas plants so that the garbage generated within the area is disposed of there itself.”
