BIRATNAGAR, JAN 16 - The mushrooming of private nursing homes and clinics in Biratnagar has provided better health services to some people who can afford it, but the medical wastes generated by such establishments have become a health hazard for all the local residents.
Over a dozen private nursing homes and a government zonal hospital produce nearly 700 kilograms of medical wastes everyday in this city. More than 100 private clinics and health labs further contribute to the mess.
The credit for the medical mess also goes to the locals who out rightly rejected an incinerator that was brought in the Koshi Zonal Hospital to burn the medical and chemical wastes. Locals objected the incinerator because they thought the emission from the machine coming out from the middle of the city would have a serious impact. The incinerator was provided by the Rotary Club International two years ago under 3-H grant project.
As the incinerator has never seen the fire, the chemical wastes are openly dumped in the Singia Khola, a stream bordering the city in the east.
According to Radhika Regmi, a resident of the Singia Khola locality, the waste is dumped haphazardly. "Even dead bodies of the babies are dumped openly nearby the residential areas," she complains.
BMC Silts Environment Services, an organisation that is carrying out the solid waste management of the city, has been ignoring the medical waste. "We don’t have equipment to treat the medical waste," says Baburaja Shrestha, general manager of BMC.
According to Dr Rameshwore Lal Karwa, medical superintendent of the zonal hospital, there has been an understanding that the incinerator will be handed over to BMC and it will be installed in a place near the Singia Khola locality.
It is also learnt that a service charge of Rs 300 per kg of the waste per month will be levied on the nursing homes and the hospitals for the disposal of medical waste using incinerator. However, after the announcement of the rate the incinerator installing project has not moved forward.
According to Dr Gyanendra Karki, director of Birat Nursing Home, the proposed disposal fee was expensive. He thinks Rs 100 per kg per month would be acceptable. The waste problem is likely to heighten as the increased medical facilities in the city has attracted people from remote areas of eastern region, and also the bordering areas of India. Posted on: 2004-01-17 03:51

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