The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) on Thursday demanded the project proponents and authorities concerned ensure proper development of incinerator and infectious waste management system at Jinnah Hospital to be built at Sector G-11/3 of the federal capital.
Director Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Pak-EPA, Ahsan Rafi Kiani presided over the public hearing of the 300-bed Jinnah Hospital to be built by the federal government as an extension of the Federal Government Polyclinic Hospital.
Kiani said the Pak-EPA’s major emphasis was on the establishment of sewage treatment plants (STP) and infectious waste management. He underlined that the STP design and construction needed to be synchronised in the master plan of the project.
He also commented on the project layout presented during the public hearing and said no place for an incinerator was indicated and all these aspects should be decided first.
Kiani also pointed out that no baseline data was provided which should have been shared for stakeholder awareness.
The traffic load to increase after the operationalization of the hospital which should also be looked after in the project plan, he added.
In his opening remarks, Ministry of Health Deputy Director Planning and Development Naeem Akhtar said the Ministry was working to improve healthcare facilities for the masses of the federal capital.
The Polyclinic Hospital was undergoing restructuring and the 300-bed Jinnah Hospital was its extension.
The land for three hundred-bed new facilities was procured after a hectic effort of many years, he said.
“This hospital will be built in two years and will help provide improved services. It will be a detailed facility with all facilities,” Akhtar said.
Manager Environment Infrastructure Development Authority of Punjab (IDAP-Executing Agency) Zill-e-Huma Faizi gave a detailed presentation on the project.
She said the federal government-funded Jinnah Hospital would be executed by IDAP that would comprise of a basement, ground plus three floors and also with the provision of a fourth floor as well for expansion purpose in future.
Faizi informed that the building units included main infrastructure, a sewage treatment plant (STP), a waste treatment facility, two operation theatres (OTs), an outdoor patients department (OPD), a pathology ward and others. The total land for the project was over 41 kanals which was over 200,000 square feet in Sector G-11/3 along with Sachal Sarmast Road.
She informed that the allocated project site was easily accessible to patients and therefore no alternative site was considered.
The total occupancy of the hospital comprised 300 beds and 1,414 hospital staff which would create a water demand of 95,984 litres per day which was estimated as peak water consumption.
“80% of water consumption is always wastewater being generated by any project. Therefore, 76,787.2 liters per day of wastewater is estimated to be produced by the hospital.
A most modern STP will be established for wastewater treatment which will be separately designed”.
She added that the Hospital Waste generated would be 450 kilogrammes (kg) per day at a rate of 1.5 kg per bed, out of which 150 kg per day would be infectious waste (0.5 kg per bed). The staff waste would be 883 kg per day at a rate of 0.625 kg waste per person, Faizi said.
“15% of the total waste will be infectious in nature (222 kg) and 5% of it to be noninfectious but hazardous waste,” she told the participants. She mentioned that a yellow room would be constructed for waste collection segregation and transportation to the endpoint of dump or incinerating site”.
Executive Director Polyclinic Hospital Dr Aamir said the presentation and project plan should have highlighted two options for earthquake safety as per CDA building codes.
Moreover, he said that future vertical extension options should be catered for in the building design.
He also mentioned that the hospital authorities decided to install an anaerobic dual chamber incinerator at the new extension of their hospital.
The site and area for the incinerator should be planned prior to the approval as there was no disposal or collection system for liquid infectious waste proposed in the layout, he added.
