As a result of absence of field force, the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (PEPA) has not conducted an inspection visit to the major hospitals in the capital city for the last one year, thus allowing them to operate without any incinerators, raising fears about the spread of fatal diseases, like hepatitis A and B, AIDS and typhoid.
After the devolution of Ministry of Environment, the employees of Environment Monitoring System (EMS), responsible for monitoring and field work, are still waiting for their salaries; resultantly, they have stopped performing their duties. It is the responsibility of PEPA to monitor whether the hospitals are disposing of the hospital waste properly or not, but in absence of field force, the PEPA has not conducted even the required monitoring of any hospital for months and years.
The staff members of EMS and National Bio-safety Centre, two subordinate bodies of Pak-EPA, have not received salaries since 1st of July, when the devolution of Ministry of Environment took place. The Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), which is now looking after the EPA’s affairs, refused to issue the salaries, while asking the Pak-EPA to prove that these bodies were essential for it.
An official in PEPA, on condition of not to be named, told Pakistan Today that they had not conducted any field related activity as their force, employed under two major programmes of ABCD and EMS, had stopped field operations and rather did not even visit the office. “The EMS staff was responsible for the monitoring and field work, but we cannot force them to work since they did not get the salaries. We have become disabled without them,” lamented the official.
The EMS was established for capacity building of the monitoring laboratories of PEPA and the provincial EPAs in order to enhance regularity compliance, environmental management and protection. The Government Service Hospital (commonly know as Poly Clinic), Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), CDA Hospital, KRL Hospital, and others private hospitals either does not have incinerators or these machines are not in use where they have been installed. “The PIMS and CDA hospitals do have the incinerators but these hospitals do not use them at all,” said an official at PEPA, while requesting anonymity.
All the hospitals claim that they send their hospital waste to different places for segregation but the official at PEPA disclosed that they were not dispatching the entire quantity and rather dispose of some infectious and non-infectious waste in open sewage system and dustbins. “Look at the PIMS. We have four incinerators there but due to their internal politics and conflicts on the part of authorities, they don’t use them. And even if these machines are occasionally used, it is not proper and resultantly, it has devastating effects on the environment as well as human health,” she said.
She said the Al-Shifa International Hospital too had an incinerator in working condition but it was seldom used. “The waste mostly is thrown in the CDA’s trolleys placed behind the hospital premises.” She said if hospital waste was not managed properly, it proved to be harmful to the environment. “It not only poses a threat to the health of employees and patients at the hospitals but also to the people living in the surrounding areas.”
“Infectious waste can also cause fatal diseases like hepatitis A and B, AIDS, typhoid and boils,” she said.
