Abdul Wahab Khan
Panaji
In a major expansion of pollution-control regulation, the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) is set to bring more than 2,000 non-bedded healthcare facilities under the mandatory consent to operate regime for the first time, with notices directing them to apply within three months.
The re-categorisation under the green category, in accordance with Central Pollution Control Board guidelines, will cover a wide range of establishments. These include clinics, dispensaries, veterinary institutions, animal houses, pathological laboratories, blood banks, clinical establishments, research and educational institutions, health and medical camps, surgical and vaccination camps, blood donation camps, school first-aid rooms, forensic laboratories and research laboratories.
While hospitals were already covered under pollution-control consent requirements, several non-bedded facilities were primarily regulated under the Biomedical Waste Management Rules 2016. The board plans to identify the establishments through its existing biomedical waste registration database.
Under the revised framework, green-category establishments can make advance consent-fee payments for 15 years. ‘Consent to operate’ carries lifetime validity, subject to annual fee payments.
Applicants will have to apply through the board’s online portal and submit local-body permissions from the panchayat or municipality, Health Department’s NOC, construction licence, land ownership documents and Coastal Regulation Zone clearance wherever applicable. They must also furnish a valid biomedical waste handling agreement or authorisation, along with prescribed application documents and self-certification.
The exercise is expected to bring thousands of smaller healthcare establishments under a common pollution-control monitoring framework and strengthen oversight of biomedical waste generation, handling and disposal across Goa.
The scale of biomedical waste generated by these establishments is reflected in the GSPCB’s latest uploaded annual report on portal. According to the report, Goa had 866 clinics and dispensaries, 43 veterinary institutions, 101 pathological laboratories, one blood bank, nine research institutions and 15 AYUSH facilities, apart from 168 bedded hospitals and nursing homes.
Non-bedded healthcare facilities together generated approximately 151.712 kg of biomedical waste per day, compared with 1,976.723 kg generated by bedded hospitals. The state’s total biomedical waste generation stood at 2,128.455 kg per day.
The report recorded that the entire quantity was treated through the common biomedical waste treatment facility, while 1,255 kg per day of treated waste was disposed of through authorised recyclers.
The figures underline that biomedical waste generation is not confined to large hospitals. Smaller clinics, laboratories and other non-bedded establishments also contribute to the daily waste stream, making their inclusion in the pollution-control consent framework
significant.
