Bio-med waste lie strewn on Kalyan road, say residents

Dombivli

Dombivli

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A huge bulk of biomedical waste, including medicines, syringes and saline bottles among others, have been dumped on the service road at phase 1 in Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, Dombivli.

Residents said this is a regular are irked with this practice and have demanded action.

“The medical waste being dumped on the service road is a health hazard. The road is used by many. We have complained about it to officials but no action has been taken till now,” said Mukesh Trivedi, 45, a resident.

Around 1.5 to 2 metric tonnes of biomedical waste is generated in Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation areas.

Deputy engineer of Dombivli MIDC, Dipak Patil said, “Waste collection is the job of the local municipal body. Recently, bio medical waste has been found dumped in several places. The civic body should address this issue. We can only ask the civic body to collect bio-med waste and stop dumping on roads.”

Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) built a bio-medical waste treatment plant at Umbarde in 2003.

The biomedical waste treatment plant at Umbarde in Kalyan (West), which shut in 2013, reopened in November 2018 but the waste is not being transported to the plant.

“We will visit the spot and check from where the waste is dumped on the service road and take action accordingly. We will have to check if dumping activity persists,” said a KDMC official, who did not wish to be named.

The treatment plant at Umbarde treats 3 tonnes of medical waste a day. Kalyan, Dombivli, Bhiwandi and Ulhasnagar send biomedical waste to the plant.

KDMC had appointed an agency to run the plant for 10 years. After the agency failed to carry out the work efficiently, the machinery got damaged due to lack of maintenance and the plant shut.

There are two civic hospitals, 13 public healthcare centres, 245 hospitals, 330 private clinics and 140 pathology labs in Kalyan and Dombivli. The biomedical waste from all these hospitals and clinics are sent to the Umbarde treatment plant.