Fuel shortage leaves medical waste buried underground
SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - Inability to fuel incinerators has led Sulaimani’s health directorate to instead mix medical waste with other garbage.
Previously, six incinerators were used to destroy medical waste in Sulaimani, but now they are not being used due to a lack of LPG.
“In a month, around 28 tons [of medical waste] would belong to government hospitals, and the other 10 belong to private ones. They would put the [medical waste] in the ground and this would have an environmental impact and would spread diseases. The only thing that would solve this issue is buying LPG.” Member of the Kurdistan Parliament Ali Hama Salih told Rudaw’s Peshawa Bakhtyar.
The medical waste treatment project in Sulaimani is located in the Tanjaro area of Sulaimani, which is close to residential and industrial areas and contains several factories and warehouses.
“They [incinerators] have not been working for five to six months and when they were working, they bothered us. Whenever they were working, the smoke would come directly to us. it smelled bad and because of the smell and the smoke, we would have got a bad headache for the rest of the day. It really bothered us,” owner of a concrete factory Fuad Mohammed said.
Environmental organizations in Sulaimani warn of further pollution in the city and that waste disposal is the cause of pollution of the water in Darbandikhan Dam and the province’s groundwater.
Previously, six incinerators were used to destroy medical waste in Sulaimani, but now they are not being used due to a lack of LPG.
“In a month, around 28 tons [of medical waste] would belong to government hospitals, and the other 10 belong to private ones. They would put the [medical waste] in the ground and this would have an environmental impact and would spread diseases. The only thing that would solve this issue is buying LPG.” Member of the Kurdistan Parliament Ali Hama Salih told Rudaw’s Peshawa Bakhtyar.
The medical waste treatment project in Sulaimani is located in the Tanjaro area of Sulaimani, which is close to residential and industrial areas and contains several factories and warehouses.
“They [incinerators] have not been working for five to six months and when they were working, they bothered us. Whenever they were working, the smoke would come directly to us. it smelled bad and because of the smell and the smoke, we would have got a bad headache for the rest of the day. It really bothered us,” owner of a concrete factory Fuad Mohammed said.
Environmental organizations in Sulaimani warn of further pollution in the city and that waste disposal is the cause of pollution of the water in Darbandikhan Dam and the province’s groundwater.