MERRY-GO-ROUND: Waste collected but returned to authorities without disposal!

‘If one had to observe what is going wrong, here’s a look at the Salcete taluka, which can serve as a template of what’s happening in other talukas too and the situation is said to be far worse in remote areas in the State. 

For instance, the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) has hit a dead end as far as the disposal of bio medical waste collected from the persons in home isolation/quarantine is concerned. The manner in which the guidelines and protocols have been thrown at the Municipalities and the actual execution has exposed the absolute bankruptcy and callousness of the authorities in the pursuit of handling biomedical waste. 

In the times of COVID-19 pandemic, all the line departments and sections are governed by guidelines and protocols that have to be followed with respect to treatment, follow-ups, handling of biomedical waste, handling of death cases etc. However, the reality is that these guidelines and protocols are only copied and pasted for compliance to all the line departments without thinking of the constraints and local conditions. 

Experts in the field lamented that while Goa, as a State, boasts of great healthcare facilities; surprisingly it has only one incinerator for the disposal of biomedical waste. 

The state of affairs was exposed after the Margao Municipal Council (MMC), which collected the biomedical waste from the persons under home isolation/quarantine was sent back from Hospicio first and then from the GMC with the waste. Reason being, the GMC incinerator is not working. The MMC officials informed Herald that the garbage collected in the first 7 days is still lying in the trucks that collected the waste.

Based on inquiries from MMC, it was clear that the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) have been picked and forwarded for compliance but no attempt is made to find the constraints of the executing body. The MMC is not even in the know about which agency picks the biomedical waste from Hospitals. 

An official of the MMC said, “MMC has no facility to dispose or store biomedical waste. In this kind of circumstances, several vehicles from across the State have been sent back from GMC. There is no problem in collection of waste, the problem is disposal.

The Municipalities at least have the system for collection but the panchayats have absolutely been left in the lurk. 

For example, Colva Sarpanch Antonio Fernandes said, “We have floated the tender and awarded contract to a person who collects biomedical waste from isolation and quarantine houses. The waste from COVID Care centers is collected by another person. 

He added that the Government has only pushed the guidelines and protocols to the Panchayats instead of taking them on board to find out the constraints. When asked where the garbage is taken on account of the breakdown of the incinerator, he said the panchayat doesn’t have an idea about that. 

On the other hand, Rumdamol Sarpanch Samiulla Faniband said their biomedical waste is picked up regularly.