World Bank aid to be sought for setting up waste treatment plants

The Hindu : Front Page : World Bank aid to be sought for setting up waste treatment plants

World Bank aid to be sought for setting up waste treatment plants

B.S. Ramesh

Three hospitals in Bangalore to be covered under KHSDRP

State-of-the-art technology to be used

Tenders already invited for the work

File photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

Looking for change: A large number of people depend on the services provided in government hospitals. —

BANGALORE: Following the Lok Adalat’s directions to the State Government to set up liquid biomedical waste treatment plants in all its hospitals expeditiously, the Government has decided to take up the projects in three hospitals under the World Bank-assisted Karnataka Health Systems Development and Reforms Project (KHSDRP).

The World Bank funding is being sought to help the State Government install liquid biomedical waste treatment plants at three major hospitals in Bangalore. The proposal to seek a World Bank loan comes in the wake of action by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) directing all government hospitals in Bangalore to close down if they do not have such plants. The World Bank has been assisting the State in upgrading all its hospitals for over a decade, and this funding has come in handy, after the Lok Adalat’s directions.

The sources in the State Government told The Hindu that the Government was seeking World Bank assistance for funding treatments plants for K.C. General Hospital, Malleswaram; Jayanagar General Hospital, Jayanagar; and the HSIS Ghosha Hospital in Shivajinagar, under the KHSDRP.
Modern technology

As of now, these three hospitals have effluent treatment plants. These are sought to be replaced by permanent state-of-the-art liquid biomedical waste treatment plants. The designs of these plants have been approved by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB). The KSPCB too has looked at the projects and advised the Department of Family Welfare about it.

While the plant to be set up at K.C. General Hospital is expected to cost Rs. 1.42 crore, it is Rs. 1.54 crore for the Jayanagar General Hospital and Rs. 53.10 lakh for the HSIS Ghosha Hospital. Tenders were invited on July 14, 2009, and the construction period is slated to be nine months from the date of issue of work order.

The sources said all the liquid biomedical waste treatment plants were expected to become operational by June 2010. They also said two other hospitals under the jurisdiction of the Health and Family Welfare Department — the TB and CD Hospital at Indiranagar and the Epidemic Diseases Hospital at Indiranagar — were being demolished and new buildings constructed. The new premises would have liquid biomedical waste treatment plants too.

They said that as of now these two hospitals did not have labour rooms or operation theatre facilities. The only source of liquid waste generation was from its laboratories.

Two other hospitals, the General Hospital at K.R. Puram and the General Hospital at Yelahanka, have bed occupancy of less than 40 per cent, and the liquid waste that is generated there is being let into septic tanks.

These tanks have been set up under the guidance of the KSPCB. The liquid waste is let into the tank after being disinfected (by treating it with one per cent hypochlorite solution).