Environment protection agency to reduce medical, city waste

KABUL, Feb.13 – A fourth regular meeting by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presided by Engineer Izzatullah Siddiqui, the professional deputy minister of National Environmental Protection Agency took place in the Band-e-Amir meeting hall. To begin with, Mr. Siddiqui welcoming the participants, said that the after the first 6 months of the conquest, the private […]

KABUL, Feb.13 – A fourth regular meeting by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presided by Engineer Izzatullah Siddiqui, the professional deputy minister of National Environmental Protection Agency took place in the Band-e-Amir meeting hall.

To begin with, Mr. Siddiqui welcoming the participants, said that the after the first 6 months of the conquest, the private companies used to collect the medical waste from all the public and private hospitals as per contract which would be disposed of burning in incinerators either by the companies or the hospitals themselves.

This process has, however, stopped now, causing the people problems. As a result, we need to resume the process and continue with our meetings on regular basis.

Then, Engineer Naik Mohammad, the director of control and inspection, briefed the attendees on the activities of the Medical Waste Management Committee, saying prior to the victory, the committee had forced 196 private hospitals to hand over their dangerous medical equipment to private companies so as to be burned in incinerators.

In the same way, government hospitals had to dispose of their medical waste by burning them in incinerators.

Unluckily, medical waste is now being mixed with city waste, which poses a serious threat to the health of the people and should be taken seriously by the government.

Hassan Ghulami, the director of Environmental Health Care of Kabul city blasted the hospitals’ authorities for mixing medical waste with city waste resulting in health hazards and dangerous problems.

Detailed discussions were held concerning the medical waste organization and the following decisions were made:

  1. Medical waste management issue has to be dealt with
  2. Coordination between committee members needs to be strengthened.
  3. Monitoring of medical waste in the cities and provinces has to be heightened.
  4. The members of the committee ought to visit the Gazak area’s medical waste collection companies and several hospitals, officially reporting to the relevant agencies.