PUDUCHERRY: The indiscriminate dumping and burial of biomedical waste along with other solid waste at Kurumbapet is posing a threat of contamination to ground water. While this in itself is a cause for alarm, even more appalling is the collection of biomedical waste and its unscientific disposal by both Puducherry and Oulgaret municipalities at the Kurumbapet site, without any authorisation from the Puducherry Pollution Control Committee (PPCC). The Kurumbapet site, which had been acquired by the government for management of solid waste is close to Ousteri, the largest water tank in Puducherry and also near Muthirapalayam acquifiers. On an average, 1.42 lakh tonnes of municipal waste is generated in Puducherry annually.
As per the solid waste management (SWM) rules, before establishing any landfill site, baseline data of ground water quality in the area should be collected and recorded for future reference. The water quality within 50 metres of the periphery of the site should be periodically monitored to ensure that the ground water was not contaminated beyond acceptable limits as decided by the Ground Water Board or the State Board or the Committee. Such monitoring should be carried out to cover different periods, summer, monsoon and post-monsoon.
Most importantly as per the Biomedical Waste Management Rules 2003, the location of the deep burial site should be authorised by the prescribed authority. The Puducherry Pollution Control Committee has not issued any authorisation for disposal at the site. The municipalities have been illegally transporting and disposing hundreds of tones at the Kurumbapet site. According to G Thevaneethi Dhas, special secretary, environment and chairman of the PPCC, “ Puducherry Municipal Services Pvt Limited, the special purpose vehicle of the Puducherry Urban Development Agency and Kiron Environment, which has been entrusted with the task of Integrated Solid Waste Management by the municipalities has applied to the State Environmental Appraisal Committee (SEAC), a sub-committee under Puducherry Pollution Control Committee for approval. The committee in turn has called for some details, which is yet to be submitted. After getting the details and terms of reference, the project will be given the green signal to carry out the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study and submit the report to the SEAC. Following this a public hearing will be conducted by SEAC and then it will be considered for clearance”.
Despite claims of the UT leading the country in health care, there has not been proper management and the disposal of biomedical waste generated by hospitals in the UT. Most of the private hospitals do not have the facility for disposal. The UT has close to 100 hospitals and nursing homes and over 20 veterinary hospitals and animal dispensaries. The disposal of biomedical waste by small private hospitals (bed capacity less than 50) and nursing homes are of concern. They lack incinerators, autoclaving, shredding, microwaving and mutilation and other facilities necessary for proper disposal. While the entire solid waste generated is dumped in municipal dustbins, the liquid waste is let out into the drainage.
Puducherry Environment Protection Association has petitioned the union minister for environment and forests, secretary, ministry of environment and forests, member-secretary, Central Pollution Control Board, chairman, PPCC and the lieutenant governor for remedial measures.
