Vietnam Needs US$150 Mln for Medical Waste Treatment
Vietnam needs to invest US$120 million to US$150 million to construct and install medical waste treatment systems as matter of urgency to reduce environmental pollution, the Ministry of Health was quoted by Vietnam News Agency as saying.
Medical waste discharged by hospital can contain 1,000 germs and 200 kinds of viruses, which can spread easily. Untreated medical waste poses a huge threat to people’s health, experts warned.
Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu said that 300, or 30 per cent of Vietnam’s 1,050 hospitals had no treatment facilities. About 33 per cent of them have medical waste water treatment systems which meet requirements, while another 30 per cent have inadequate treatment systems.
Trieu said the ministry will work with others to study and submit a program on waste treatment to the Prime Minister.
Under the program, local authorities will be responsible for building treatment systems for the hospitals in the coming time.
According to the ministry, about 40 per cent of poisonous medical waste was disposed of by being burnt in standard incinerators, another 33 per cent in poor quality ones with the rest, in the open, posing the greatest risk. (VNS)
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