Medical waste is generated from medical and biological activities, such as the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of diseases . Generally it is classified as ; healthcare waste that may be contaminated by blood ,body fluids or other potential (left untreated ) to harm human , animals ,or the environment
So the thing that may get your attention is that there is no healthcare facility in Karachi has a proper mechanism to safely collect and dispose of its medical waste. And the highly hazardous waste is either sold by healthcare facilities, unsafely dumped within the neighbourhoods or taken to the decades-old government incinerators lacking independent monitoring and the waste that is sold to factories they recycles that plastic and reuses it making daily use items that are unsafe to use and cause diseases to the one who uses them.
And however this serious issue got proper attention when Shaniera Akram posted on Twitter. The experts were sharing their views against the backdrop of a debate generated on the media following Shaniera Akram’s posts on Twitter in which she shared her observations, pictures and a video showing parts of the Clifton beach littered with clinical waste that included open syringes, vials of blood, broken glass medical containers, that has come in from the ocean spread out over kilometers across the beach. And has put lives of people visiting the sea at risk and she even said that Clifton beach is a bio-hazard zone and needs to be shut down immediately.
However Reacting to this alarm, the affected area reportedly was cordoned off and the Clifton Cantonment Board collected the waste. But the experts criticized government’s ad hoc approach towards what they described as ‘a very old issue’ and many people appreciated Mr’s Akram for raising her voice.
But I believe from now on government should make sure that disposal of medical waste should be done properly and should install new incinerators and we citizen should raise our voices if the governments fails to deliver as it is our responsibility to keep Karachi clean and make our enjoinment a better place to live in.
MOIZ AHMED,
Karachi.