Some 5,200 health centers discharge “unprocessed” wastewater into environment
PSNews- Only 60% of the 13,000 health centers in the country has medical waste treatment facilities, meeting the required standards, and most of them are central- and provincial-level hospitals, said Ms. Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, Director of the Health Environment Management Department under the Ministry of Health.
 |
It means that the remainder or some 5.200 facilities still discharge untreated or undertreated wastewater into the environment, , which is an urgent issue that needs to be addressed.
This situation originates a lack of budget, said Deputy Minister of Heath Nguyen Thanh Long. Currently, about 400 hospitals need investment in building or upgrading medical waste treatment systems.
Meanwhile, the hospitals that have been invested in the medical waste treatment system, also face both financial and technical difficulties to running, maintaining and upgrading their waste treatment systems. This again leads to inefficient operation and shortened life-span of the systems.
According to experts, it costs VND 1.5 billion to treat 100m3 of wastewater. Most of the hospitals of provincial- and district- level as well as specialized hospitals are funded by the State Budget; so if there is no specific regulation of investment for medical waste treatment, the situation is hard to be improved.
Against this backdrop, the Government has issued a policy to mobilize social financial sources for medical waste treatment. The Ministry of Health has been authorized by the Government to draw up a specific policy and mechanism on medical waste treatment to achieve the goal of medical waste treatment, and at the same time mobilize all social and economic sectors to participate in water treatment, solving capital problems.
