BERHAMPUR: The Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) has privatised the management of bio-medical waste collected from urban health centres in silk city. The city has eight urban primary health centres and six urban health dispensaries. The health centres generate around 500 kg of bio-medical waste daily. In order to treat and manage the waste, the civic body has signed an MoU with Bhubaneswar-based Medicaid Marketing Services, said BeMC commissioner J Sonal.
Special vehicles to collect bio-medical waste from the healthcare institutions were flagged off by mayor Sanghamitra Dalai and commissioner Sonal on Wednesday. The bio-medical waste generated at the health centres situated at Uttaramukhi, Aga Sahi, Aska Road, Baikuntha Nagar, Red Cross, Khodasingi, Ambapua and Haridakhandi and urban health dispensaries at Minakshi Nagar, Tulsi Nagar, Gosaninuagaon, Ankuli, Ambapua and Haridakhandi will be lifted in the vehicles, said Sanghamitra.
The waste which was being buried in separate deep wells earlier will now be sent by eight vehicles to an incinerator plant set up by the company at Arakhapada in Seragada block, around 45 km from Berhampur. The incinerator plant has a capacity of seven tonnes.
“We are also collecting bio-medical waste from 10 private hospitals and nursing homes in Berhampur,” said Rabi Narayan Pasupalak, a partner of the company which has been working in the field for the last 15 years. As per records of the district health office, there are 170 private clinics and hospitals in Ganjam of which 140 are in Berhampur city. However, bio-medical waste management in these private healthcare centres remains a cause of concern.