PANJIM: Though Goa’s premier health institution – the Goa Medical College and Hospital Bambolim – has a Rs 4.5-crore garbage processing plant for medical waste, the other waste continues to be dumped in the open and from this emanates an annoying stench. Passersby, as well as doctors and patients, complain of severe nuisance caused by the unbearable stink.
Fresh heaps of garbage, including food, plastics, diapers, bottles, broken glass, tube lights and unsegregated waste lies strewn on the already squalid grounds behind the Yatri Niwas block. To add to the nuisance, dogs, crows and rag pickers are a common sight at this dump.
Relatives of patients, who reside in the room and dormitories of Yatri Niwas, complain of flies and an unbearable stench and fear for their health. “Very often I find flies inside the room that I’ve been allotted. The smell too is very annoying,” said a woman, whose husband was admitted to the casualty ward.
Doctors, who come to the building which also houses the canteen, have complained of a bad smell while eating. “It is very unpleasant when we sit here to eat our meals. We have to keep the flies away from our food. The monsoons are the worst,” one doctor said. She also complained that during the rain, the entire area is prone to mosquitoes and the smell gets worse.
The smell plagues passersby and even those who stand outside the hospital wall, where the kiosks once stood. People complain of the unbearable smell. “The smell from the garbage is nauseating,” a citizen stated.
Dr Sunanda Amonkar, GMC’s Medical Superintendent blamed the dumping of garbage on people from the neighborhood saying, “That area is an open space, so there is possibility that people from neighboring areas also dump their garbage here.”
She stated that the hospital’s organic waste is dumped in landfills and not thrown in the open. She suspects that people slip in through two openings in the compound wall through which they throw dirt or fling it over the compound wall.
“Since the site is close to the main road, it becomes easy for people to fling their garbage bags over the fence. There were two openings in the walls. While we’ve closed one, we will be closing the other soon,” she said, assuring that the garbage problem will be under control once that is done. Though the GMC has a Rs 4.5 crore garbage processing plant within its premises, it caters only to disposal of medical waste and converts bio medical waste into ash. The other garbage is dumped in the open.
