Experts urge sanctions for unlawful hospitals
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration is advised to take tough measures against 39 hospitals in the city that do not treat their medical waste properly, because such waste could endanger people's health and damage the environment.
Besides the 39 hospitals, hundreds of community health centers in the capital also do not treat their medical waste properly, environmental engineer Nusa Idaman Said from the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) said on Sunday.
"Many of the hospitals and health centers dump infectious waste together with common domestic waste at the Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi," Nusa told The Jakarta Post.
He called on the City Health Agency that supervised hospitals and other health centers in the city to undertake preventive efforts by asking the medical institutions to treat the waste properly or face administrative sanctions.
If the agency's warnings are ignored, he said that Environmental Law No. 23/1997 could be enforced to punish hospitals that did not treat their waste properly.
According to Article 41 of Law No. 23/1997 on the environment, those found to be damaging the environment can receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a maximum fine of Rp 500 million (US$60,240).
However, if the damage causes the death of others, the maximum sentence is 15 years in jail and a fine of Rp 750 million.
Previously, the City Environmental Management Body (BPLHD) revealed that from 99 hospitals in the city, only four hospitals which had properly managed their medical wastes.
BPLHD recorded that 39 out of 99 hospitals poorly managed their medical waste, while the remaining 56 hospitals had not reported their waste management process.
It said that among 39 hospitals were an ophthalmology hospital in Central Jakarta, two maternity and pediatric hospitals in East Jakarta and West Jakarta, a hospital belonging to a private university in North Jakarta and a renowned hospital belonging to a state-owned enterprise in South Jakarta.
The hospitals reportedly produce radioactive and medical wastes that could endanger people living within its vicinity.
Radioactive waste from hospitals can cause various diseases, including cancer, while medical waste can spread infectious diseases from patients to the public.
Medical waste come in the form of liquid waste from soiled bed linen produced by hospitals every day and other liquid waste from patient, treatment and surgery rooms, while solid infectious waste come in the form of gauze bandages and cotton pads.
If the hospitals have no liquid waste treatment facilities, they dump the raw waste directly into rivers without any treatment.
Hospitals usually burn their solid waste at temperatures of between 800 and 1000 degrees Celsius if they have incinerators. If they do not have incinerators, the hospitals should bring their solid waste materials to a treatment facility for hazardous waste in Bogor, West Java.
Chairman of the Environmental Task Force (ETF) Ahmad "Puput" Safrudin said improper waste management could not only endanger people living close by, but also those living in areas far from the hospitals.
Puput said if infectious and other chemical wastes were dumped directly into the city's waterways without passing through a liquid waste treatment facility, infections could spread throughout the capital.
"We know that rivers in the city are still used by the people for their daily needs," he told the Post on Sunday. Many city residents still depend on river water for cooking, bathing and washing.
He concurred with Nusa that the administration should no longer tolerate hospitals that have no in-house waste treatment facilities.