Residents of MGR Veedhi at Jeevanandhapuram in Lawspet want JIPMER to find a permanent solution to the civic issues arising out of the dumping of solid waste by the institute near their locality.
JIPMER uses a small enclosure inside the campus, close to the MGR Veedhi, as landfill to dump waste, though the hospital has entered into separate agreements with the Puducherry government for the management of solid and bio-medical waste generated at the institute.
Residents say that dumping of waste packed in polythene bags used to happen occasionally, but in the recent days, it has become a routine affair causing huge inconvenience to people residing in the area.
“For the last few months, the quantity of waste dumped in the area has gone up substantially. The foul smell emanating from the yard is unexplainable. The odour stays in the surroundings most of the time and during evenings and nights, the stench becomes unbearable. Children are not able to eat properly. Sometimes, you feel nauseous,” said Rani, a resident of the area.
Her neighbour, Sakthivel, said children are the most affected as they are unable to play outside most of the time. “Unlike the smell coming from a normal dump yard, the stench feels different, sometimes making us worried whether they are dumping biomedical waste in the area. We have seen blood stained cotton materials and other biomedical waste strewn in our locality, especially on the terrace of houses. Probably birds might have dropped the waste. We have complained to the authorities regarding the smell and inconvenience it is causing to the residents,” said Mr. Sakthivel.
‘No biomedical waste’
Ruling out any possibility of biomedical waste getting into the landfill, Medical Superintendent of JIPMER, L. N. Dorairajan told The Hindu that recently, there was a slight disruption in the arrangement the hospital had with Oulgaret Municipality on collection of solid waste from the campus.
“The biomedical waste goes to the Common Service Centre set up by the government at Thuthipet. We don’t dump any biomedical waste inside or near the campus. The landfill is only used to dispose segregated dry solid waste generated in the campus,” he said.
The Medical Superintendent said there was an issue on rate revision with Oulgaret Municipality. “The issue has been sorted out on Wednesday and no food waste or other solid waste items will hereafter go to the landfill,” he said.
The authority entrusted with the task of managing biomedical waste in Puducherry also ruled out chances of hospital waste going to the landfill. L. Arumugam, Manager (Operations), Pondicherry Solidwaste Management Committee Private Limited, said there has been no disruption in the collection of biomedical waste from JIPMER these days. The company, appointed by the government to manage biomedical waste in Puducherry, operates a bio-medical waste incinerator at Thuthipet.
“We collect barcoded and colour-coded biomedical waste from JIPMER on a daily basis. The waste is taken to the Thuthipet plant. On an average, around two tonnes of hospital waste is collected from the institute. The collection is monitored through a centralised bar-code management system by the Puducherry Pollution Control Committee,” said Mr. Arumugham.
According to a senior JIPMER staff, though the chances of biomedical waste finding way to the landfill was very less, the issue could have been avoided by having a proper solid waste management facility within the campus.
“The residents are not complaining for the first time. A few years ago, they resorted to an agitation complaining about the stench from the open yard. We [hospital management] ourselves have given room for the residents to complain by using a space on the campus as landfill. How will we justify to public when a healthcare provider is dumping waste in an open environment close to human settlement? These issues crop up because of lack of proper decision making,” said a person on condition of anonymity.
Dr Dorairajan said that the hospital was planning to put a robust solid waste management system in place. “We are in the process of appointing a consultant. Maybe after the lifting of the Model Code of Conduct, things will move fast so that we could float tender for the appointment of a consultant,” he said.
