The Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) is in a fix over disposing biomedical waste of private hospitals in Berhampur and Burla.
Last month, the state government asked MKCG Medical College and Hospital and VSS Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur and Burla respectively not to receive waste from private hospital for disposal in their incinerators (a heat chamber, where waste are burnt).
According to OSPCB, an arrangement between government and private hospitals was made to ensure that the waste generated by the latter can be disposed of. “We asked MKCG and VSS authorities to allow private hospitals to dispose of their waste in the government incinerators, which can accommodate more than 500 kg a day. This arrangement also reduced burned on the government institutions as the private hospitals were asked to share maintenance cost of the incinerators,” said OSPCB senior scientist D K Behera.
While the MKCG generates about 200 kg waste a day, VSS generates 300 kg. “The government move will compel private hospitals to follow the traditional method of disposing waste by digging deep pits,” he said. An incinerator costs around Rs 30 lakh and it is not feasible for private hospitals, generating less than 50 kg waste a day, to buy one, he added.
VSS superintendent L K Dash said the government took the decision as the incinerator at the hospital could not take too much load.
A survey conducted by OSPCB, in the third week of July, revealed SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack was not segregating biomedical waste despite several reminders.
SCB superintendent P K Rath told TOI that the incinerator had developed some technical snag.
