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SCB hospital installs waste treatment unit

Correspondent

Meets High Court deadline of Feb. 25

The facility was installed at a cost of Rs. 50 lakhs
It will be able to treat wastes from cancer hospital also

CUTTACK: Just three days ahead of the February 25 deadline fixed by the High Court, the SCB Medical College and Hospital here on Friday completed the installation of bio-medical waste treatment plant.

Hospital superintendent Trilochan Sahu and college principal P.K. Chinara inaugurated the treatment plant installed at a cost of Rs. 50 lakhs.

Incinerator

The treatment plant consists of two microwaves for disinfections of medical equipment, including plastics, a shredder for breaking the plastics, including syringes and needle, and one incinerator for burning of medical wastes, comprising gauge, cotton and body parts, including gynaecology department wastes like placenta.

A water treatment plant was also proposed here to treat the waste water generated from the hospital.

The premier referral hospital of the State was constantly pulled up by several agencies, including the State Pollution Control Board, for not implementing the provisions under the Bio-medical Waste (Management and handling) Rules of 1998.

Source of pollution

The hospital’s waste water released to the nearby Taladanda canal, which is the lifeline of Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur districts, was always a cause for concern.

On an average, some 1.5 kg of bio-medical waste (BMW) is generated per month per bed from the hospital, which has nearly 2,500 beds.

Apart from the BMW, the hospital is also generating hazardous wastes and huge quantity of waste water.

But there is no proper waste management system in place in the hospital for which the areas surrounding it are constantly under threat.

“With the installation of the incinerator, the hospital is now in a position to dispose of some 500 kg of body wastes and 50 kg of other infectious wastes, including plastics, everyday.

We will also treat the wastes generated from the nearby regional cancer hospital and Sishu Bhawan in our treatment plant,” said Prof. Sahu after inaugurating the facility.

Project officer of the treatment plant B.K. Das informed that a Rourkela-based company – M/s Damodar Engineering – installed the machinery and would operated it.

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