Disposal system: Two hospital waste incinerators planned

10,569kg waste is produced daily by 232 hospitals in the city, says Waseem Ajmal.

LAHORE:

The Health Department, in collaboration with the Lahore Waste Management Company, is in the process of creating a centralised system to incinerate toxic hospital waste. Two incinerators will be installed at Lakhu Dair to dispose of waste from 232 public and private hospitals.

This was discussed at a meeting chaired by Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique on Tuesday. The meeting discussed a plan for a waste management system for hospitals.

LWMC Management Director Waseem Ajmal told the participants about the proposed waste management system for hospitals. He said that 10,569kg waste was produced daily by 232 hospitals in the city. There is a dire need to develop a contingency plan to dispose of this waste. Ajmal said that two incinerators would be installed in Lakhu Dair. Each plant would have the capacity to burn 500kg of waste per hour. He said there would be a central point in each town where the waste would be collected and shifted to Lakhu Dair for processing.

The Environment Protection Department would collaborate with them on the project, he said. Ajmal said that 20 per cent of the waste produced by hospitals was injurious to human health. He said they planned to introduce plasma technology to enable the plants to generate low cost power from the waste.

Rafique said the project would also help control the spread of diseases like hepatitis and AIDS. He said the hospital waste management project would be replicated in other cities of the province and used to generate power through these projects.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2013.