Residents in the city have alleged that more than three months after pandemic broke, the Greater Noida authority is yet to implement any mechanism on the ground for the separate collection and treatment of biomedical waste produced from households including those where cases of coronavirus disease (Covdid-19) have been reported.
“Biomedical waste— including personnel protection equipment (PPE) kits, masks, and gloves —which can be hazardous is not collected in separate bags or bins by the authority—which is responsible for waste collection and management,” said Amit Sharma, a resident of Gaur City, Greater Noida. “ Earlier, our society had three cases of Covid-19 and they recovered last month, and now two more people from our society are undergoing treatment for the infection.However, the Greater Noida authority has put no proper methodology in place to collect and treat the waste from these houses with confirmed cases.”
Officials of the Greater Noida authority, however, said they had passed directives for separate collection of bio-medical waste, but if any discrepancy is reported from an areas is because of non-cooperation from residents. “We had issued an official order a month back asking a private agency to collect used masks, gloves, or other waste in separate bags from residents under home quarantine living in residential sectors and housing societies. We have made it clear that hazardous bio-medical waste should be collected properly, and should be handed over to another agency that then treats it scientifically. Residents should cooperate with us in handling this waste. If it is not being done in any society then it may be because of non-cooperation by residents,” said Narendra Bhooshan chief executive officer of the Greater Noida authority.
Residents, however, alleged that bio-medical waste from households from where Covid -19 cases were reported and the other occupants are under home quarantine was not being collected separately. “At least 15 positive cases were detected in our society after which the administration sealed our block. However, the waste collection staff collected waste from other houses in the same bag they used for collecting waste such as masks, gloves, and other waste from the patients’ houses. This is shocking and we had even complained to the Greater Noida authority officials asking them to collect waste from households with Covid-19 cases separately, but nothing has happened so far,” said Harinder Bhati, former residents’ welfare association president of Sector Beta1.
{{/usCountry}}Residents, however, alleged that bio-medical waste from households from where Covid -19 cases were reported and the other occupants are under home quarantine was not being collected separately. “At least 15 positive cases were detected in our society after which the administration sealed our block. However, the waste collection staff collected waste from other houses in the same bag they used for collecting waste such as masks, gloves, and other waste from the patients’ houses. This is shocking and we had even complained to the Greater Noida authority officials asking them to collect waste from households with Covid-19 cases separately, but nothing has happened so far,” said Harinder Bhati, former residents’ welfare association president of Sector Beta1.
{{/usCountry}}The authority also does not have any record of data on bio-medical waste collected from residential areas daily.
City residents said that there is no separate system to collect hazardous waste multi-storey housing societies as well. “I have not seen any difference in collection and handling of the hazardous medical waste being produced amid the pandemic. The worker who collects waste from our flat also collects waste from the patient’s house and in the same bag. I do not think this is the right way to handle waste as it can expose so many people to risk,” said Sunil Sachdeva, a resident of Cherry County society, sector Tech Zone4 in Greater Noida West.