Biomedical waste piles up
KARNAL: The quantity of Covid-19related biomedical waste being generated in Haryana has increased over the past two months, increasing from about 2,198 kilograms per day in April to 6,757 kilograms per day till June 15.
For the last 2.5 months, the average daily collection of Covid biomedical waste in Haryana has been 3,647kg, said an official on Wednesday.
However, as the state witnessed a steep hike in the number of coronavirus cases in the past one month with 9,500 fresh cases reported from May 25 to June 21, it has also led to an increase in Covid waste. According to the Haryana State Pollution Control Board, the state has generated 6,594 quintals of Covid19 waste in
April,10,991 quintals in May and 10,135 by June 15.
The waste, containing PPE kits, gloves, masks, headgear, bottles, needles, syringes, and disposable utensils and leftover food of patients, doctors and staff members of healthcare facilities, quarantine centres, quarantine houses and testing labs, is being directly collected by authorised biomedical waste service providers as well as through municipal corporations and municipal committees.
Member secretary of the HSPCB S Narayanan said, “As per the instructions issued by the Central Pollution Control Board the Covid-19 waste is being disposed of by authorised service providers through incinerators.”
“The daily data of Covid-19 waste is being collected by respective regional offices from the Common Bio-medical Waste
Treatment Facility (CBWTF),” he added.
As per the officials, only trained employees have been deputed by the private agencies in the management of this waste.
“We have to take extra precaution now as we have to collect and dispose of about 300kg of Covid biomedical waste from Karnal and Panipat districts, said a worker on the condition of anonymity.Even as most workers of these private agencies are working for the past several years and now they have been given the additional responsibility to dispose of Covid19 waste, they did not get any additional benefits for putting their lives at risk.
“No-doubt their job has become risky but neither the government nor our agency has provided any additional benefit to us,” said an employee a private agency.