Stakeholders in the waste management sector have begun discussions on implementation of a professional document to tackle waste evacuation in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The stakeholders converged on Abuja at a seminar on Basic Plan for Health Care Waste Management titled “Development of the Basic Plan for Strengthening of Health Care Waste Management in the Federal Capital City (FCC).”
FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, in his submission, said that the professionally developed document would provide a scientific methodology of getting wastes clearly evacuated and disposed to save residents of FCT.
Wike was represented by Dr Babagana Adam, Permanent Secretary Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
The minister said with the implementation of the document, Abuja would be healthier as wastes would be properly disposed.
Mr Osi Braimah Director, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), said that biomedical wastes generated from health care facilities could potentially infect health care workers, patients and the general public.
“In general, only about 10 per cent to 25 per cent of wastes generated from healthcare facilities are infectious, but poor management or co-mingling of waste would contaminate the entire solid waste streams leading to 100 per cent contamination of general waste.
“The plan is to install four incinerators in designated hospitals and two at Gosa dumpsite.
“The AEPB with support from JICA had previously implemented a project for Integrated Solid Waste Management System in the FCT from 2015 to 2018.
“This document provides the way forward in the management of healthcare waste in the FCC and hopefully help develop capacity in the FCT,” Braimah said.
Mr Tetsuya Yamamoto, Senior Representative Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Nigeria, noted that the document implementation would help Abuja become a more sustainable city.
“It is the assessment of the transition of healthcare waste and viable solution to the climate phase waste generation to segregation, treatment, correction and final disposal,” Yamamoto said.
Mr Felix Amechi Obuah, Coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), said that the document was very instrumental to ensuring that FCT was clean and free from all types of environmental nuisances.
“FCTA is also using this medium to appeal to all relevant stakeholders especially the healthcare facilities to put these tools to use,’’ he said.
Obuah urged stakeholders to ensure compliance for FCT to be comparable with other cities of the world in the areas of effective Healthcare Management System. (NAN
