"When I get up in the morning, I find my bed's full of dark small carbon particles, the balcony is full of particles, and it is so difficult to breathe. In the morning we want fresh air, there is nothing like fresh...", says Anil Misra, resident of Sukhdev Vihar, a collection of DDA apartments in South-East Delhi. Misra and his fellow residents have gathered on the terrace of one of the apartments. He gestures to the squat red building, just 28 metres away, from which a chimney is throwing up black smoke. The building houses a Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facility, that 'treats' all the discarded waste from hospitals, nursing homes and dispensaries in Delhi. Cutting corners
These wastes consist of removed body organs, blood-soaked bandages, surgical gloves, needles, instruments - a mix of organic, plastic and even radioactive matter. Needless to say, this stuff is dangerous. Exposure to waste could lead to infectious diseases, even AIDS if there's contact with infected blood. If plastic parts are burnt, they would release dioxins that are cancerous. And there's always the chance of catching something less menacing. Of course, these risks could be considerably reduced if wastes are treated as per prescribed norms. This essentially means 90 percent of medical waste has to be autoclaved - a process that includes heating waste in a pressurised device to achieve sterilization. Somewhat like 'cooking' wastes in a huge pressure cooker! There's reason to believe though, that best practices are NOT being followed at the Synergy Waste Treatment plan in Sukhdev Vihar. Ravi Agarwal of Toxics Link, a Delhi-based privately funded agency that specializes in toxic waste says, "black smoke means there will be unburnt material coming out...it leads one to think that there is mismanagement on the facility." There's plenty of black smoke out there and it seems clear the company is cutting corners.
A government slip-up?
But even if Synergy Waste was doing a professional job of treating waste, should the plant have been allowed to come up at all in the first place? According to central government guidelines, such plants need to be 'located at a place reasonably far away from residential areas'. This plant though, was set up just 28 metres from the boundary wall of the DDA flats in Sukhdev Vihar. On the other side of the facility lies Haji colony, a densely populated locality. A third side is bounded by Ghaffar Manzil. "We thought it was going to be a godown of sorts, we only realised what it was when the chimney was erected", says Shahid Hasan a resident of the corner flat that is closest to the plant. Air Commodore Mehra, another resident echoes, "28 metres or 30 metres from our boundary is certainly not reasonable.we would like this to be shut down or shifted to another place." The colony hasn't spared any efforts - they've petitioned the Delhi govt, the State Pollution Control Board and the matter currently rests with the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Tejendra Khanna. There's also the matter of a precedent in this case - a similar plant was shut down earlier this year in Kota, Rajasthan.
Where do the wastes go?
Residents of Sukhdev Vihar say medical wastes should be disposed-off in hospital incinerators, like they used to before. Bigger hospitals may do that efficiently, but who will police the smaller nursing homes and clinics? How many times has one seen wastes strewn about in street corners? Agarwal says centralised waste treatment plants are the best bet - not only are they cost-efficient, they're also safer.But only if, (and it's a big IF) they're not bang in the middle of residential neighbourhoods.
This was a report I filed as part of my daily job; it can be found here.
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