the goan I network
MARGAO
Forty-five hospitals, 252 clinics and no bio-medical waste mechanism. That’s the situation staring at the commercial capital after the indiscriminate disposal of bio-medical waste along the Monte Hill road during the weekend came to light and exposed hollow the institutions generating the bio-medical waste.
With increasing number of bio-medical waste with the dry waste coming to light in the city, with Margao Municipal workers complaining of the mixed waste in the dry waste picked up from the waste generators, the Margao Municipal Council is now exploring the possibility of roping in the agency reportedly engaged by the City Corporation of Panjim and the Mormugao Municipal Council for bio-medical waste collection.
While it may take some time for the government to set up a centralized bio-medical waste treatment facility in Ponda taluka, the MMC is now writing to the CCP as well as the Mormugao Municipal Council asking for details of the agreements these civic bodies entered with the bio-medical waste contractor and his credentials.
Says MMC Chief Officer Sidhivinayak Naik: “The Margao municipal area plays host to 45 hospitals and 252 clinic spread across the city. But, there’s no dedicated bio-medical waste disposal facility in the city. With incidents of bio-medical waste finding its way in the dry waste, the MMC has now written to the CCP and the Mormugao Municipality to explore the possibility of roping in the same contractor to collect the bio-medical waste facility generated in our area”.
Naik pointed out that the exercise initiated by the civic is purely a stop-gap arrangement in order to tide over the situation arising out of the absence of any facility to treat bio-medical waste.
The MMC Chief Officer, however, pointed out that he expects the people from the medical profession to be cautious while disposing of the bio-medical waste camouflaged in dry waste, saying such a practice can cause problems and infections to the municipal waste collectors.
“When the MMC had impressed upon the butchers in the SGPDA market to segregate the waste instead of giving the mixed waste to the waste collectors, they were prompt in complying with the directions. I hope the directions issued to the people in the medical profession also help the civic body in tackling the waste issue,” he added.
The issue of disposal of bio-medical waste came to the fore on Saturday after a prominent hospital disposed off its bio-medical waste in two gunny bags along the road leading to the Monte Hill.
It’s another matter that a representative of the hospital later came and took away the two gunny bags after an alert citizen raised an uproar, but the incident had only once again brought to the fore the absence of a bio-medical waste facility in the commercial capital.
