Councilor blasts environment bureau over hospital waste
Councilor blasts environment bureau over hospital waste
JAKARTA (JP): A city councilor has rebuked the environment
bureau for failing to force hospitals to build the waste
treatment plants stipulated by the government and city
administration.
Muhammad Rodja, a member of Commission D on development
affairs, said the bureau should have taken legal action against
hospitals without waste treatment plants.
"The bureau does not necessarily have to wait for public
protest. Hospitals which dump waste into rivers should be
punished," Rodja told The Jakarta Post Saturday. "Warning the
delinquent hospitals is useless."
Data shows in 1995 Jakarta had 98 hospitals, 64 state-owned
public hospitals and 34 private hospitals.
The ministry of health issued a decree in 1992 requiring all
hospitals to have waste management units. The decree gave the
hospitals three years to build the waste treatment plants.
Jakarta's governor also issued a decree, No. 582/1995,
requiring all industries and hospitals to treat waste before
dumping it into the rivers.
"Hospital waste is very dangerous because it can contain
chemical substances or human waste, which can be harmful," Rodja
said.
Officiating at the opening of the Cikini Hospital waste
treatment plant in Central Jakarta Friday, Jakarta Governor
Surjadi Soedirdja called on all hospitals to build their own
waste management units.
"Only few of the 98 hospitals in Jakarta have waste treatment
plants. Waste treatment plants are not cheap, yet the hospitals
must be aware of the dangers of their untreated wastes," Surjadi
said.
Hospitals have unofficially objected to constructing the waste
treatment plants which are very costly.
The Cikini Hospital spent Rp 700 million (US$297,872) on its
waste treatment plant, which can treat 340 cubic meters of liquid
waste per day.
The hospital had been warned twice for not having a treatment
plant. "I congratulate and welcome the hospital management for
having the unit constructed -- after the warnings," Surjadi said.
Subsidy
The government subsidizes state-owned hospitals for the
treatment plants, while private hospitals must finance the
construction on their own.
"There is no excuse. Hospitals are obliged to construct the
plants," Rodja said.
Under both the ministerial and the governor's decrees, the
government can impose administrative sanctions on state-owned
hospitals that fail to build the units. The government can issue
warnings or seal the pipes which discharge the waste into the
rivers, Rodja said.
"The authority can revoke private hospitals' operational
permits."
The city environmental bureau refused to announce the full
list of hospitals still dumping waste directly into rivers.
Last year, the bureau recorded that the C, F and GS hospitals
had polluted the Ciliwung River and the HKT, P and OM hospitals
had polluted the Cipinang River. (ste)