Piyush Jindal and Misbah Bashir
Abstract
The liquid waste generated from the Health Care Facilities consists of chemicals, pharmaceutical substances, radio-active elements, disinfectants, infected secretions, body fluids and liquid from laboratories and floor washings. The liquid waste generated in the healthcare facilities of Punjab is being disposed off into sewers without adequate pre-treatment and treatment. The Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) of the towns are not designed considering the quantitative and qualitative load of the effluent from the healthcare Facilities. This lead to failure of STPs to ensure desired discharge standards thereby polluting the river streams and degrading the aquatic environment. However, the Bio-Medical Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2018 provide guidelines for pre-treatment of chemical liquid waste and conformation to certain discharge norms before discharging into sewer but the same is not being properly implemented. This study points out present system of treatment of chemical liquid waste being provided to healthcare facilities in Punjab and whether the system for pre-treatment and discharge norms provided in the Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 are adequate.