NGT seeks action as states fail to disclose key info on biomedical waste treatment

Bengaluru: India generates 719 tonnes of biomedical waste per day but a significant part of it remains untreated despite the country reporting facilities to treat 1,592 tonnes per day, prompting the National Green Tribunal to seek an explanation from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The tribunal was looking into a report filed by CPCB which showed that states either do not have adequate treatment facilities or those that have were not utilising them. Instead, as many as 17,800 healthcare facilities (HCFs) in the country resorted to burying the biomedical waste.

A principal bench of the tribunal comprising chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and expert members A Senthil Vel and Ishwar Singh noted that some of the states do not have Common Biomedical Waste Treatment Facilities (CBWTFs) and adopt the practice of burying the same.

Incidentally, the Biomedical Waste Management Rules permit 'deep burial' only in rural and remote areas where there is no access to CBWTFs. The rules also prescribed the standards for burial to reduce the impact on the environment. The CPCB counsel did not dispute that burial is a temporary measure and all biomedical waste should be treated.

CPCB scientist V P Yadav, who was present at the hearing, "could not disclose" if the board has the responsibility of ensuring compliance to the rules and if action is taken by the board or any other authority when the burial is not done as per its guidelines.

The bench noted that though it has been disclosed that facilities exist to treat 1,592 tonnes per day of biomedical waste, actual utilisation of such facilities "has not been disclosed" by the CPCB report.