Fear of virus stalks sanitation workers

NEWDELHI/MUMBAI: When the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s solid waste management department of the G-north ward handed over June’s schedule for daily waste collection, one of its collectors turned apprehensive.

Earlier this month, the 32-year-old was tasked, along with two other workers, to collect waste from the containment zones in block 119 – a set of nine areas in Dharavi, which saw a severe outbreak – and load it into a vehicle that would take the biomedical waste to the city’s only treatment facility. “The fear of contracting the virus never leaves the mind,” said the sanitation worker, who asked not to be named. “But work is work, and it has to be done.”

His job is risky, as very often residents of the containment zone do not segregate the waste they generate into hazardous biomedical waste (yellow bag) and household waste (black bag).

“Though residents were provided separate yellow and black coloured bags, we continue to receive one bag every day with all types of mixed waste including masks, gloves, banana peels, gowns and plastic bags that are spilling over,” said the worker.

Donning a hazmat suit, face mask, rubber gloves and boots, the worker steps into the collection bin, handpicks both Covid-19 related and other waste falling out of black bags and transfers it into large yellow ones marked Covid-19 waste before passing it on to his co-worker. “We make a chain for quick transfer into the van, and move to the next colony. We take turns at every collection point,” said the worker.

BMC officials agreed that workers in the 46 waste segregation centres are at risk, as they separate dry from wet waste. Since April 15, when these centres reopened, sanitation workers have been dealing with mixed or unsegregated waste.

The situation isn’t any better in Delhi. At least 15 sanitation workers have died, and 40 have tested positive for the virus.

“After Covid-19 outbreak, every house, roadside and drain has discarded masks, gloves or face shields. Even if one of these items belongs to a positive person, the sanitation worker who is handling it will also contract the disease,” Sanjay Gahlot, president of Delhi Safai Karamchari Union, said.