PANJIM: Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has fined Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC), Rs 25,000 for burning waste in the GMC premises. The penalty amount has to be paid to the North Goa District Collector.
GSPCB chairman Ganesh Shetgaonkar said that this was done following an inspection that had been carried out recently.
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The inspection report made four observations.The first being that large quantities of mixed solid waste, along with infectious bio-medical waste, were seen dumped and burned in an open area within the premises of GMC.
Then, that mixed solid waste generated from the canteen along with re-cyclable disposable plates, cups, etc were dumped within the GMC premises.
It further reported that a large quantity of bio-medical waste was seen stacked near the incinerator building in the open premises for disposal in the incinerator.
Finally, it concluded that the bio-medical waste incinerator plant was in operation at the time of inspection.
“However it appears that total waste generated within the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) premises, as well as the waste brought from other health care facilities, is in excess of the waste handled and disposed of in the incinerator. Hence large quantities of bio-medical waste were seen stored in the open adjoining the incinerator and hydroclave sheds,” GSPCB said.
The board also issued directions to GMC for burning and unscientific management of solid waste leading to air and water pollution.
“GMC is required to adequately segregate the canteen waste into wet waste and dry waste. Wet waste may be composted within the premises while the segregated dry waste is required to be disposed through the Corporation of City of Panaji,” GSPCB said.
“GMC has to continuously monitor the waste generation and disposal on a daily basis and create awareness and training of the staff for effective waste handling,” GSPCB added.
The Board also directed GMC to set up adequate bio-medical and solid waste storage facilities.
Shetgaonkar commented on the final recommendation by the Board, wherein it will write to Goa Waste Management Corporation, asking them to expedite the commissioning of the Common Biomedical Waste Treatment and Disposal site at Kundaim Industrial Estate.
He said once the Kundaim facility starts operating, the load at GMC will definitely decrease. Shetgaonkar took a sympathetic stand and said the issue arose as the quantum of waste being generated at the hospital had massively increased due to the rise in number of patients at the hospitals and their relatives and friends visiting the hospital. He said this was more than what the staff used to handle earlier.
He also blamed the public for not following the regulations and not disposing of their re-cyclable disposable waste correctly, even though there are bins with clear markings at the hospital. He said even the disposal of vials by the public is not done correctly while insisting that GMC’s staff handles the collection of bio-medical waste properly.
He pointed out that the incinerator at GMC for such medical waste can process 100 kg per hour and that it runs for 12 hours, meaning 1.2k kg of waste is treated per day. He said this waste is from GMC and the medical waste collected from other health centres via the Goa Health Monitoring Services.
He added that more manpower may be required at GMC for the collection and segregation of dry waste, disposal of wet waste and overall discipline levels needs to be improved upon in this regard.
