Introduction

The Bio-Medical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 1998 as amended in 2000 by the Govt. of India, mandates proper segregation, treatment, transport and disposal of the infectious Bio-medical wastes for the safeguard of the public health. The following are the salient features:

1. The generators of bio-medical wastes should take authorization from the State Pollution Control Board/Committee (Rule 8).
2. The health care units are to obtain consent to operate certificate from the State Board/Committee under Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
3. The onus of ensuring proper treatment lies squarely with the generators (occupier) of the waste.
4. The Municipal Bodies can only pick-up and transport duly treated bio-medical wastes for disposal at the municipal dump site.
5. The onus upon urban bodies is to provide suitable sites for disposal/incineration.

In addition, as per the Hon’ble Calcutta High Court Judgement in September, 2001, there is a direction upon West Bengal Pollution Control Board to take appropriate action against units for non-compliance of the Rules.

Within KMC and HMC areas

Inventory:

Within KMC, the total no. of Health care units including pathological laboratories are 832. Of these, there are 332 Hospitals– 55 in Govt. sector and 277 in private sector. The no. of hospitals having more than 50 beds are – 38 Govt. and 32 Private– total 70.These 332 Health care units having bed capacity of 25,128, contribute daily 6.3 tonnes of BMW (considering generation of BMW as 250 gms/bed/day).Of these, the 11 Govt. hospitals with total bed capacity of 11,594, generate 45% of the total wastes in KMC area.

Within HMC area, there are 63 nos. Hospitals and Nursing Homes – 7 nos. Hospitals in Govt. Sector and remaining 56 Nos. are private nursing homes. Apart from this, there are 38 nos. pathological laboratories/clinics. The total BMW generated from these health care units having total beds of 1,909 are 500 kgs per day (approx.).

Management of Bio medical Wastes:

Since 1998, the KMC started collection, transportation of untreated BMW from the health care units situated within its jurisdiction and dumping the same in earmarked area at Dhapa Dumping Ground.

The State Govt. in July,2002, felt the need to have a common storage, treatment and disposal facility for the BMW for the HMC and KMC areas. The State Advisory Committee in this regard emphasized that the operation and maintenance of the facility should be explored on commercial basis, for sustainability of the project by using various models such as BOO (Build Own Operate) or BOT (Build Own Transfer).

Following the above decision, M/s. Medicare Incin Pvt. Ltd. a BOO Operator setup a Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facility at Howrah, and started its operation from November 2003.

The Common Bio medical Wastes Treatment Facility at Howrah:

Under the PPP policy framework announced by the Govt. of W.B., the Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facility was set up by M/s. Medicare Incin Pvt. Ltd. a sister concern of M/s. Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd., Hyderabad at Howrah, near Belgachia Trenching Ground of Municipal Solid Waste, on a HMC provided lease (for 30 years) land of area 2 acres, at an investment of Rs. 2 Crores. The Facility is providing service for collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of BMW. It has a capacity to treat the BMW generated from 30,000 beds. This facility is basically set up for the health care units situated within the KMC and HMC areas.

Treatment facility: The Facility has an Incinerator of capacity 200 kgs./ hour, and an autoclave of capacity 800 ltrs./ batch of 60 minutes. Both these equipments are provided with automatic feeding system. The incinerator consists of two (2) nos. Chambers with full fledged air pollution control system. The Effluent Treatment Plant also exists in the facility and the treated water is recycled in the Scrubbers of incinerator, vehicles washing and gardening purposes.

Service cost of the facility: The private operator of the Facility enters into an agreement with the individual health care unit to negotiate the terms and conditions. At present Rs. 2.70/- per bed per day is being charged from the private Nursing Homes and Hospitals, whereas, Rs. 2.45/- per bed per day is being charged from the State Govt. Hospitals. The reduction of the rate in the case of Govt. units is due to the less production of BMW per bed per day compared to their private counterpart. The service charge rendering for the pathological laboratories / clinics depends upon the waste generation, type of pathological tests etc. and it ranges from minimum Rs. 500/- per month to Rs. 1500/- per month.

Status as on 13.04.2004

Out of 332 health care units (Hospitals and Nursing Homes) within KMC, 206 nos. have already joined the said facility and the others are in process. Pathological Labs/Clinics within KMC have also joined the said facility. Among the 206 nos. health care units, 31 nos. are State govt. Hospitals, and 1 no. is Kolkata Port Hospital.

In HMC, out of 63 nos. health care units (Hospitals and Nursing Homes), 56 nos. Private Hospitals/Nursing Homes have joined the facility, joining of the other heath care units is under process. 23 nos. Pathological Labs/Clinics have also joined in the said facility.

The total no. of beds of these health care units situated within HMC and KMC areas that have joined in the said facility are 21,000 (approx.), thus constituting about 80 percent of the total capacity of beds in the KMC/HMC areas. The remaining health units are in the process of joining the Facility.

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