NAGPUR, May 24: Srishti, a Delhi-based environmental NGO specialising in the management of medical wastes, has found that the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has flouted all norms in installing an incinerator at Mokshadham here. The incinerator is to be made operational shortly.Samir Nazareth, project officer of Srishti, who undertook an inspection of the incinerator on Friday, found that the incinerator was "a technologically old, outdated and obsolete junk box", which he feels will only create more health hazards for citizens, rather than doing them away.Nazareth told mediapersons here that the incinerator was at least 30-35 years old and was the type dumped by Western countries in India.He also said that the incinerator had only a single chamber. This means that medical wastes will be directly burnt in it, leading to exhalation of heavy fumes and ashes. Besides, according to Nazareth, the incinerator has no chimney and the NMC is therefore planning to dispose off the ashes directly into the NagNullah - one of the biggest surface water sources in the city - through a small channel dug from the incinerator site into the nullah.The NMC, Nazareth said, had installed the incinerator right in the heart of the city, in a very crowded place by the Nag Nullah. This despite the fact that as per rules, incinerators for medical wastes should be situated at least two and a half kilometres away from city limits, should not be near any place where irrigation is undertaken and should not be near any surface water source.Secondly, the chimney of the incinerator should be taller than the tallest building within a two and a half kilometre radius of it, which means that the chimney in the case of the city incinerator should be at least 200 feet tall."But there is no visible chimney at all to this incinerator, which is only about eight feet high," Nazareth said. As a result, the toxic fumes will spread at a very low level and may cause serious health problems.The Nagpur chapter of the Indian MedicalAssociation (IMA) has also been opposing the setting up of the incinerator in the present form and site. Former president of IMA, Dilip Guha, had launched a crusade against the move by forming a five member body with the support of Environmental Global, a NGO, and the former dean of the Government Medical College.At an only meeting where the NMC invited Guha for discussions, he (Guha) was told that the State Pollution Control Board had approved the setting up of the incinerator. Apparently, Guha then asked for a copy of the PCB certificate, but it still has not been send to him.
