The National Green tribunal has ordered that a high level task team comprising of officials from the Ministry of MoEF&CC, Health and Urban Development, Defence and Central Pollution Control Board supervise the handling and disposal of COVID-19 waste in accordance with the guidelines.
The Principal bench of the NGT headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel was hearing a matter that it took suo moto cognizance of so as to ensure protection of environment and public health, in view of potential of such infectious waste adversely affecting public health, concerned workers and professionals etc. This followed a news item published in the Indian Express title, ‘Biomedical waste facilities, a red flag in coronavirus fight’, authored by Apurva Vishwanath and Karishma Mehrotra.
The court after hearing the matter narrowed it down to the issue of addressing gaps in compliance of Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016.
Whereas, the Court observed that, while the BMW Rules generally take care of the situation by way elaborate provisions to deal with biomedical waste generated in dealing with infectious diseases such as HIV, HINI etc., present pandemic has presented further challenge inter-alia on account of:
- Existing gaps in compliance of BMW Rules in terms of capacity to scientifically dispose of generated waste and non-compliance of procedural and monitoring aspects;
- COVID-19 virus has emerged suddenly and is highly infectious, requiring more precautions compared to other infectious diseases.
The court also took note of the guidelines issued by CPCB to deal with the situation, last updated on 8th April, 2020, “Guidelines for Handling, Treatment, and Disposal of Waste Generated during Treatment /Diagnosis/Quarantine of COVID-19 patients-Rev.2”
However, after going through the guidelines the bench noted that there is a need for further revision of the guidelines to cover all aspects, covering not only institutions but also individual households and dealing with situations where scientific disposal facilities like incinerators are not available and any unmindful deep burial without adequate safeguards can adversely affect the ground water and pose danger to health and safety of people.
“Disposal of COVID-19 waste in general bins so as to be part of municipal waste or unscientific handling sewage and other liquid waste without safeguards can also be hazardous”, the court stated.
The bench headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, observed that there is a need for creating awareness about the precautions and steps to be taken by all handlers and workers as well as citizens, making a model plan, to be adopted locally by the Panchayat, Subdivision, District and State authorities with such further changes as may be necessary in local conditions.
The Court also stated that there is also a need of training of persons responsible for compliance in Local Bodies and Health department by an online mechanism instead of only providing them with adequate protective gears.
The bench also penned that the Chief Secretary of States/UTs will closely monitor the scientific storage, transport, handling, management and disposal of COVID-19 waste as its unscientific handling poses a grave threat environment and health of people by coordinating the same with the concerned departments of the State.
The Court has directed the State Departments of Environment and Pollution Control Boards to ensure compliance of Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016 and furnish action take report to CPCB and CPCB take further steps and furnish a consolidated report to this Tribunal of the steps taken and the ground status as on 31.5.2020.
The matter is further listed for consideration on 22nd June, 2020.
-India Legal Bureau