Hospital waste management launched in city

Under a pilot project incorporating 11 clinics and hospitals, injection needles and saline syringes are being destroyed, UNDP sources said on Thursday.

The project is being implemented by Initiative for people's Development (IPD), a non-government organisation.

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The main objective of the project is to act as an eye opener for the policymakers. It is also aimed at creating awareness among concerned people and finding a suitable technology to manage the hospital waste, the sources said.

Hospital staff including doctors, nurses and cleaners have also been made aware of the consequences of the unplanned disposal of the medical waste.

Under the project, the medical waste is collected in a hygienic manner at all the 11 clinics and taken to city's Bhashantek area, where the syringes and needles are destroyed.

"This is not a modern solution, but it is better than doing nothing," said IPD Secretary General Dr Mahmudur Rahman.

He said it is an attempt to check the spread of diseases like HIV/AIDS and jaundice, which are mainly caused by the use of recycled syringes.

Every day the capital city produces 4,500 to 5,000 tonnes of solid waste, one per cent of which is clinical or bio-medical garbage, said an official of the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC).

The clinical waste includes saline and blood bags, syringes, injection needles, plaster, separated human organs, foods, and remains of injection and distilled water.

Of the waste, the used syringes are currently being recycled by a vested group, who buy them from the poor collectors at a very cheap price and make those reusable under fake brands, sources said.

Used syringes have posed a serious threat to the civic life with high possibilities to spreading HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, said Tanzia Haque Hossain, national coordinator of LIFE, an UNDP-funded waste management project.

She said the medical waste is being sold and recycled in Dhaka and other major cities across the country. It is also polluting other wastes due to mixture with other solid wastes.

Management of medical waste is still at the planning level in the country. Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) have recently signed a minutes to prepare a solid waste management master plan within 14 months from November this year.

Almost all the 600 city clinics and hospitals have no exclusive system required to dispose of their waste.

Eighty per cent doctors, nurses and lab technicians are not aware of the fact that different kinds of bio-waste should be kept in separate disposal bins to minimise the hazards from such waste, said a recent study of the voluntary organisation, Waste Concern.