{"id":64592,"date":"2020-07-13T16:11:49","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T09:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ekuatorial.com\/2020\/07\/addressing-gaps-in-waste-management-in-times-of-a-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2020-07-13T16:11:49","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T16:11:49","slug":"addressing-gaps-in-waste-management-in-times-of-a-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ekuatorial.com\/en\/2020\/07\/addressing-gaps-in-waste-management-in-times-of-a-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Addressing Gaps in Waste Management in times of a Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

By May Rahmadi<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed that medical waste management in Indonesia needs vast improvement. While the number of positive Corona virus infection case is on the rise, so is the volume of medical waste but even the government is admitting that its medical waste management system is still facing a lot of constraints.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of the Environment and Forestry, through its Directorate General for the Management of Garbage, Waste, Toxic and Dangerous Substances even saw the need to convene four coordination meetings with the Health Ministry, the National Police\u2019s Detective Unit, the District\/Municipal Offices for Environment and Health and representatives of a number of reference hospitals to discuss this topic.<\/p>\n

The meetings, on May 14, 15, 18 and 20, 2020 particularly discussed the management of toxic and dangerous waste coming from helath care facilities (fasyankes) such as hospitals, polyclinics and community health centres (Puskesmas),  as part of the impacts of the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Director for Performance Assessment of Toxic and Dangerous Substance Management at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Affairs, Sinta Saptarina, said that the handling of medical waste is of highest importance due to the characteristic of waste \u2013 toxic and infectious.<\/p>\n

Infectious waste<\/a> is waste contaminated with blood and other bodily fluids (e.g., from discarded diagnostic samples), cultures and stocks of infectious agents from laboratory work (e.g., waste from autopsies and infected animals from laboratories), or waste from patients in isolation wards and equipment (e.g., swabs, bandages, and disposable medical devices), and may cause human disease<\/a> and may reasonably be suspected of harboring human pathogenic organisms, or may pose a substantial threat or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of or otherwise managed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause they can get infected with a disease. Toxic waste contains chemicals that can have an impact on health and can also cause air, soil and water pollution,\u201d Saptarina told Ekuatorial, <\/strong>on June 23, 2020.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The graphic above shows the number of healt service facilities in the country, types of waste in the category of toxic and hazardous, and the number of medial waste produced in a day.  Source: Indonesian Environmental Scientist Association (IESA), 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/em><\/p>\n

Saptarina said that in general, there are a number of issues in the management of medical waste from Covid-19.<\/p>\n

First,  there are still many hospitals which are equipped with incinerator but do not have the appropriate permit to operate it. There are also many hospitals with incinerator and but its permit is pending process, and then there are hospitals with no such facility at all.<\/p>\n

Second, medical waste transportation and treatment services are still limited and do not yet cover all of Indonesia.<\/p>\n

Third, there is a limited capacity to manage ashes from the incinerator.<\/p>\n

Fourth, cement factories in the regions that has kiln, capable of reaching temperatures of 800 degree Celcius, the temperature mandated by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry affairs for the treatment of medical waste, do not have the permit to process the medical waste.<\/p>\n

So far, said Saptarina, the ministry has continuously tried to overcome the constraints in the management of waste that contains toxic and dangerous substances, known as B3 waste. The Minister of Environment and Forestry Affairs, for example has issued circular number 02 of 2020 on March 24, 2020 regarding the management of Infectious Waste and Household Garbage from the Handling of the Corona Virus Disease.<\/p>\n

The circular was addressed to the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency\/Head of the Taskforce for the Acceleration of the handling of COVID-19, all provincial governors and heads of district and mayors.<\/p>\n

The circular contained at least four points:<\/p>\n