CẦN THƠ – Medical waste is threatening the Mekong Delta city of Cần Thơ due to difficulties in treating this hazardous solid waste at local healthcare facilities.

 Deputy Director of the provincial Health Department Cao Minh Chu said an estimated 6,800kg of medical waste was discharged each day from 129 healthcare facilities in the city.

However, the city faced many difficulties in treating the waste, Chu said at a meeting with the Health Ministry this week.

All hospitals collected and classified medical waste as regulated, but most of them did not have solid waste treatment facilities, he said, adding that they had to enter into contract with some enterprises to transport and treat medical waste, which was difficult to supervise.

He noted that construction of solid waste treatment facilities required huge investment, making it hard for health facilities to afford it since the provincial budget was limited.

Vice Chairman of the city’s People’s Committee Lê Văn Tâm said handling medical waste was one of the urgent tasks for the city. The city had worked with an enterprise to treat solid medical waste in Ô Môn District, but it wasn’t effective enough, he said. Meanwhile, the waste dumping station in Cờ Đỏ District was overloaded.

The treatment of medical waste water in the city also faced challenges since waste treatment facilities had deteriorated. More than 1,500cu.m. of medical waste water was released each day, but these facilities could only handle some 1,300cu.m., according to the health department.

The department is investing in building medical waste water treatment systems at large hospitals with ODA-loan support from the health ministry.

The department plans to ask the city’s People’s Committee to use the provincial budget to build waste treatment facilities for some hospitals.

Deputy Minister Nguyễn Thanh Long said the city should tighten management of solid medical waste treatment and stamp out substandard incinerators at private health clinics to prevent environmental pollution. — VNS