Untreated wastewater with liquid biomedical waste from the Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital and Postgraduate Institute is being directly discharged into the Grand Canal. The Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998, mandate that hospitals with more than 100 beds should install effluent treatment plants (ETPs). However, the government general hospital is yet to abide by the rules.
The hospital, which has more than 700 beds, discharges nearly one lakh litres of wastewater everyday. The Puducherry Pollution Control Committee (PPCC) has issued directions to the hospital in 2014 to install an ETP, but so far nothing has been done. While solid biomedical waste are cleared within 48 hours and carried to the incinerator, liquid waste is let out into the storm water drain without being treated.
“Stench emanating from the canal closer to the government general hospital is a clear indication of the flow of effluents from the hospital. Liquid effluent is generated from laboratories, through washing floors, vessels or medical instruments and scrubbed liquid effluent. This wastewater generated in hospital is prone to bacterial or nuclear contamination and chemical wastes. Microbes reach the drain and proliferate in the already existing nutrients in the canal,” said an official concerned. The official added that the effluent water from the hospitals have to be treated before they are let out into the drain. There are 10 government hospitals in Puducherry and all the hospitals except the Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital have ETPs.
K.V. Raman, Director, Department of Health, said that separate coloured bins are placed to collect solid waste and it is disposed within 48 hours. They are taken to the incinerator in Thuthipet.
“Since the hospital building is more than 100 years old, there is no space to build an effluent treatment plant. We are planning to build one. We will soon have a centralised drainage system where the wastewater would be treated at a common Sewage Treatment Plant,” he said. He added that wastewater from the hospital is being treated at the Sewage Treatment Plant in Lawspet.
However, officials at the PPCC said that the wastewater flows through the Gingee Canal via Law College, Light House and enters into the sea. “This is not treated at the Lawspet Sewage Treatment Plant.”
