ISLAMABAD: Almost 80 per cent of hospitals in Islamabad do not have incinerators and dump their waste in the open, a report submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan stated on Thursday.

The report was presented to the apex court by government`s Standing Counsel Syed Nayab Hassan Gardezi on behalf of Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), Ministry of Climate Change.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, had taken up a case relating to pollution and environmental degradation in the country.

The report said Pak-EPA recently updated and compiled an inventory of all major hospitals, laboratories and other medical facilities both in the public and private sectors in the federal capital and found that most of thehealthcare centres did not possess incinerators and dumped their waste in the open.

`Pak-EPA intends to develop a centralised hospital and hazardous waste facility in Islamabad and for this purpose has identified a German waste management company, Messers Alba, for which KFW German Development Agency will provide 40 per cent of the total funding.

Currently, Messers Alba is undertaking feasibility in consultation with Pak-EPA and other stakeholders and hopefully the facility will be established in the near future.

The federal government intends to launch a number of measures to make Islamabad a pollution-free city.

The measures included monitoring vehicular emission, unauthorised construction in the green areas and the dumping of sewage into water reservoirs etc.

The report also said allparkinglots created in the greenbelts should be restored and charged parking system be introduced in the public parking areas.

Referring to the vehicular emission, the report said Pak-EPA with the help of the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) intended to launch a campaign to monitor air and noise pollution in the city.

The traffic police will be allowed to issue on-the-spot tokens or challans to vehicles emitting smoke higher than the prescribedlevel or creating noise. Commercial vehicles entering the capital territory will be issued vehicular emission test certificates.

About dumping untreated sewage into water reservoirs, the report said a programme had been devised by the CDA and the capital administration that included setting up of five sewerage treatment plants to cater to the untreated sewage in the watershed area of Rawal Lake.

Pak-EPA has already requested the CDA to offer a technical presentation so that the technical aspects and the site of such treatment plants can be ascertained. Besides, the option of the public-private partnership will also be evaluated toensureits sustainability.

Similarly, to discourage the open dumping of solid waste in the residential areas and untreated industrial effluent into streams, the segregation of solid waste at the primary, secondary and tertiary stages of solid waste is the only solution to sustainable management of solid waste.

Almost 30 per cent of solid waste, including tin, iron, plastic and other recyclable items, is segregated through scavengingatthe secondary and recycled through the informal sector.

Civic agencies such as the CDA and the ICT administration should take a lead, the report said, adding Pak-EPA would support the identification of technology and professional guidance through the process.