India: Over 656 Tons of Biomedical Waste Generated Daily During Covid

NEW DELHI (IANS) – About 656 tons per day (TPD) of biomedical waste was generated across India in 2020, out of which 590 TPD was collected and treated by common biomedical waste treatment facilities, the Parliament was told.

Further, about 84.61 TPD of incremental Covid-19 biomedical waste was generated between May 2020 to February 2022 from healthcare facilities, quarantine centres/camps, sample collection centers, laboratories, home care/ home isolations centers engaged in treatment, diagnosis and quarantine of Covid-19 infected or suspected patients.

The Central Pollution Control Board had issued guidelines for handling, treatment and disposal of waste generated during treatment, diagnostics and quarantine of Covid-19 patients in March 2020 and also developed an application, COVID19BWM to track the generation and treatment of this waste in the treatment facilities.

The CPCB has issued notices to 33 facilities across the country for not reporting data on COVID19BWM, of which 15 are in Karnataka, 5 in Maharashtra, two each in Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana and one each in Odisha, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.

There are 208 common biomedical waste treatment facilities operational in the country as per the information furnished by SPCBs/PCCs for 2020, and there are none in nine states/Union Territories. The BMW treatment and disposal in these areas is done through captive treatment facilities operated by healthcare facilities themselves.