HYDERABAD: To contain the spread of Coronavirus, the Municipal Administration Department has issued an additional advisory to all the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) asking them to take special care in disposing waste from quarantined households. This waste would be treated as hazardous and would be collected and transported separately.
The ULBs would provide these households with specially-marked yellow garbage bags and the waste generated from quarantined houses would be treated as bio-medical waste.
It would be collected in separate collection vehicles and transported separately, and the vehicles would be thoroughly disinfected every day.
The Municipal Commissioners have been asked to ensure proper disposal of such waste only through incineration. In case the incineration facilities are unavailable, these waste should be buried in a deep pit as a last resort, so that they cannot contaminate any other surface.
The sanitary staff involved in the collection and transportation of the hazardous waste should be provided with personal protective kits every day.
Before leaving for collection of waste and after returning to their duty station, every sanitary staff would be subjected to thermal checking.
They should deposit their used masks and gloves at a designated, cordoned-off area and such used protective gear should be treated as hazardous waste, to be disposed of through incineration.
The advisory mandates that the ULBs should levy penalty on those who engage in unregulated disposal of COVID-19 waste, including waste collectors.
It added that the ULBs should work closely with district health authorities in this regard. The Municipal Commissioners have been instructed to encourage Self Help Groups (SHG) to make masks and sanitisers.
They have also been asked to take up cleaning of public places — commercial areas, places of worship, popular tourist spots, parks and gardens that normally sees high footfall — before the lockdown period ends.