Epca asks for report on biomedical waste generation and disposal; will submit before SC next week

The Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (Epca) on Wednesday conducted a video meeting with the state pollution control

The Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (Epca) on Wednesday conducted a video meeting with the state pollution control boards and municipalities of Delhi-NCR asking them for a detailed report on the quantity of biomedical waste generated by hospitals and quarantine centres since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The body has also asked for details on whether this hazardous waste was being disposed of safely.

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Epca chairperson Bhure Lal said that representatives from Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan attended Wednesday’s meeting. The states have been asked to submit the required information in the next three days, after which a detailed report on the generation and handling of biomedical waste from Covid-designated treatment centres will be submitted before the apex court.

“Between March 16 and March 22, we had started inspecting hospitals around Meerut, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Bhiwadi to see how they were segregating biomedical waste and how it was being disposed of. But after such a massive outbreak of Covid-19, we are dealing with more hazardous biomedical waste and we need to know if the states are handling this waste safely,” Lal said after the meeting.

He also said that along with data on waste generation and disposal, the SC-mandated body is inspecting whether the garbage collection trucks are fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) trackers to ensure that the collectors are picking up waste from hospitals, quarantine centres and houses of those under home isolation and are not dumping it midway before reaching the waste treatment centres.

“We have found that 90% of these vans are fitted with GPS trackers, but we have asked states to also collect garbage from small clinics in their areas because a lot of asymptomatic patients carry the virus,” Lal said.

He added, “We have also asked states to maintain a complete record of the final disposal delivery of biomedical waste. This will ensure that this waste is not recycled and reused.”

Epca’s final report will be submitted before the SC within a week.