Corona treatment: 300% spike in medical waste over 3 weeks in Rajasthan | Jaipur News

TRASH TROUBLE: A heap of medical waste in city on Thursday

JAIPUR: There has been a significant rise in the generation of medical waste in the state in the last three weeks. Around 22 tonnes of medical waste were generated every week. Earlier, it used to be around eight tonnes per week which translates into a whopping 300% rise. There is, however, a demand for increasing the medical waste treatment facilities in the state as well.
There are eight functioning facilities and seven more are being proposed, the requirement of which is being felt during Covid times.
Currently, majority of the waste being generated from hospitals is related to Covid which his being collected by the vehicles and dumped at the facility established for the medical waste. The quantity of waste generated is lower than last year when more than 28 tonne of garbage was being generated every week.
A senior official of State Pollution Control Board said that strict guidelines are being followed while disposing of the medical waste. “We have made the guidelines available to all the department and waste is being disposed of on that basis. We have already proposed seven medical waste disposal plants some are ready to be started and some are yet to be approved. With the pandemic, we are hopeful that we will get the permission sooner.”
Medical waste is disposed of in an incinerator where waste is burnt out in a few minutes without eliminating pollutants in the environment. Either this or waste is buried deep in pits but medical incinerator is the standardize procedure with less pollution.
With eight facilities, many districts are dumping their medical waste at one place. Like Jaipur gets medical waste of Duasa, Sikar, Churu. Whereas Alwar takes care of medical waste of Bharatpur, Sawai Madhopur, Karauli.