ISLAMABAD: There is no incinerator in the federal capital for disposing of medical waste of dozens of public and private hospitals, which is being dumped improperly in the garbage heaps. According to an official of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the leading hospital of the country did not have an incinerator for proper handling of medical waste. Additional District Health Officer Dr Najeeb Durrani said that the improper disposal of medical waste is dangerous for the health of citizens and could spread infectious diseases. An official in enforcement section of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that the environment body conducted a survey in which it was found that 60 leading hospitals in the capital city including public and private health facilities are not adopting proper methods to dispose of their medical waste. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) workers and private contractors collect the hospitals’ waste and then dump it along with municipal waste. The EPA official confirmed that all public and private health facilities are violating the Hospital Waste Management Rules, 2005 on safe disposal of hazardous waste. According to EPA, all the hospital waste collected by the CDA and contractors should be disposed of at the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC), which is the only facility with a modern incinerator near Attock Oil Refinery in Morgah, Rawalpindi. The official said that the EPA had been constantly writing letters and asking hospitals in Islamabad to take their waste to the NCPC for proper disposal but its instructions are being flouted. He said, “It is the responsibility of hospitals, clinics and labs to ensure that their waste is properly disinfected and taken to the incinerator for proper discarding”. He said that there is no proper data available of the garbage collected by contractors. Nobody had been following prescribed environmental rules while the EPA lacks manpower to take remedial measures, he added. The official said that the EPA had been issuing notices to hospitals and sending cases to the environmental tribunals for violating environmental laws but no permanent mechanism is in place for sustainable monitoring and rectifying the situation.