ICT Hospitals' Hazardous Waste Dumped In Municipal Garbage, Says WWF Report

ICT hospitals' hazardous waste dumped in municipal garbage, says WWF Report

World Wildlife Fund (WWF-Pakistan) Director General Hammad Naqi Khan Tuesday said the hospitals in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) were generating most hazardous waste which was found dumped in municipal garbage despite their garbage's incineration

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Dec, 2019 ):World Wildlife Fund (WWF-Pakistan) Director General Hammad Naqi Khan Tuesday said the hospitals in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) were generating most hazardous waste which was found dumped in municipal garbage despite their garbage's incineration.

He made these remarks at the launching of Plastic Waste Baseline Study of ICT and Ayub National Park (ANP) here however, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in partnership with WWF Pakistan conducted the baseline assessment of plastic waste management in ICT and ANP.

He said the scavengers or rag-pickers in the federal capital were largely at risk as they were directly exposed with highly infectious hospital waste being dumped on the garbage disposal site.

"The hospitals use a lot of polyvinyl chloride or synthetic plastics and generate extremely detrimental and infectious garbage. There is no segregation system of the waste and has been disposed openly with household garbage. The situation is also similar in galiyat area containing ANP," he said while presenting the findings of the baseline study.

Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) should have close coordination with the scavengers in order to introduce waste segregation system as they did not have any safety equipment to avert serious contamination while collecting waste or recycle items from the dumping site, he noted.

He while narrating the recommendations of the study said the existing legal and policy framework needed to be revisited from the competent authorities.

Moreover, there was also need to increase and enhance scope of recycling of waste with multiple incentives. It was also necessary to mobilize and formalize informal waste sector through subsidies and equipment, registration of recyclers, NOCs to be given to only environmentally compliant recyclers, centralized recovery system and create public environmental awareness.

Galiyat Development Authority (GDA) Director General Raza Ali Habib said waste management in mountain ranges was a major challenge and complex thing. "The world's 42 percent mountain ranges exist in Asia and 60 percent of the population resides in these areas. However, we need to all stakeholders on board to take best practical measures to turn this challenge into an opportunity which will become a risk if let go unchecked," he added.

He said GDA had fined over Rs21.65 million in its anti-littering campaign on the tourists throwing garbage in galiyat.

Mayor of Islamabad Sheikh Anser Aziz said we were going to outsource waste collection and management soon as Sangjani landfill site was finalized to kick start the project.

Director UNESCO Vibeke Jensen said we would welcome and support all stakeholders and donor agencies to partner in controlling plastic waste pollution and its management in the federal capital.

Solid Waste Management, she said requires technical solutions and mindset change solutions like education and awareness raising steps to address the matter.