Sindh govt oblivious to threat posed by Covid-19 waste.

Byline: Faiza Ilyas

KARACHI -- The Sindh government is yet to wake up to the threat posed by 'Covid-19 waste' as countless contaminated face masks, gloves and body suits, along with other medical waste, find their way to roadside garbage dumps, it emerged on Monday.

Conversation with sources privy to the matter revealed that decades-old official indifference towards management of waste, including highly infectious medical waste, continued till to date and the government had neither developed a mechanism focusing on the safe disposal of Covid-19 waste nor hospitals had been given any instructions.

Sepa inactive for almost two months

The lack of official interest, they said, was evident from the fact that the government had not made operational the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), which is responsible under the law to ensure that no hazardous material including medical waste was thrown in open and endangered public health, for almost two months.

The Sepa director general was not available for comments.

A Sepa official, on the condition of anonymity, told Dawn that the department had opened last week with limited staff presently tasked only to get its offices fumigated.

Hospitals, patients in home isolation are generating waste; govt urged to create awareness about proper disposal

'As for Covid-19 waste, I believe this job has been assigned to a committee comprising officials of the health department and Sindh Healthcare Commission (SHCC),' he said.

When asked whether such a committee exists, a health department official suggested that the SHCC should be contacted in this regard.

A SHCC official, however, said, the commission was not part of any such body.

'If such a committee exists, we are not part of that committee,' said director-clinical governance Dr Ahmed Raza.

According to him, it's the responsibility of Sepa to check the capacity of hospitals for waste management and see whether they have functional incinerators and also ensure that the waste is being safely disposed of.

'Our role is limited to see that hospitals have a waste segregation system in place and the staff is trained to do the task. We also conduct training sessions on waste segregation and other relevant topics but we are not authorised to take action in case of violation (of hospital waste management rules),' he said.

Citing his interaction with doctors, Dr Raza said they often questioned the utility of training sessions on waste management as agencies tasked...