EPA issues legal notice to Rawal Hospital for poor waste management

Islamabad : Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) on Wednesday served a legal notice to Rawal Hospital at Lehtrar Road for poor management of hazardous waste posing serious risk to environment and human health.

Director General Pak-EPA Farzana Altaf Shah told this agency that the notice was served after repeated complaints raised by the citizens at the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) portal highlighting clear violations of the law made by the hospital administration.

Ms Shah said in view of the complaints of citizens registered at PMDU, the Environmental Monitoring Team (EMT) of Pak-EPA was directed to visit the Rawal Hospital Lehtrar Road Islamabad to ensure the compliance of Hospital Waste Management Rules, 2005 and address concerns of the citizens.

She added that on confirmation of violation of the said Rules, the management of Rawal Hospital was issued legal notice as permissible under the Law.

An EMT member informed that as per the Rules, it was necessary to ensure proper segregation and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste of the hospital before dumping through a proper waste disposal system.

The situation was completely different on ground as no segregation of infectious waste was done and the hospital also lacked an incinerator to burn the hazardous waste, he added.

"The hospital administration was found dumping hazardous waste openly in dumpsters and also burning the infectious waste manually at the rooftop which was a bleak violation of the Rules," he said.

He further mentioned that the Rawal Hospital administration would appear before EPA in the hearing to explain its stance and afterwards the decision would be made by the DG Pak-EPA for further process.