Hyderabad: Drive against Covid waste kicks off

Hyderabad: Even as pleasant news reports are trickling in of how the nature is breathing easy - with cleaner air and water - in the absence of human activity due to Covid crisis, another issue of concern is brewing. Use of masks, gloves and PPE is exponentially on the rise, causing great concern about their threat to environment. Covid biomedical wastes comprising hospital waste as well as discarded masks, gloves and personal protection equipment are raising concerns of environmentalists and government alike.

Acting with alacrity before the situation aggravates, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has introduced two vacuum cleaners on trial basis on a stretch from Cyber Towers to Shilparamam to Hi-Tec City here on Monday. The machine can work for one-and-a-half hours with half a litre petrol.

"We have imported two vacuum cleaners exclusively to pick up face masks, hand gloves, water bottles, sanitary wipes, tissue papers, wet wipes and other disposed items which might carry bio-germs posing threat to passersby and sanitary workers," said Ravi, AMOH, Chandanagar.

As sanitation workers have to pick up the waste using hands and unscientific methods, they are exposed to air borne virus and other germs which pose risk of getting infected. So we are trying to bring sweeping reforms and shift from manual to robotic machinery wherever possible," he added.

These machines have been already in use in northern parts of the country and Indian Army has been using these machines for a long time. Now the sanitation workers were being trained in operating the vacuum cleaners. Till now the corporation has been using heavy eight tonne machines in 55 roads of Hyderabad to clean the roads.

"The vacuum cleaner weighing around 10 kgs can collect 120 kgs of garbage. The sanitation workers need to just push the machine near to collect the waste. As a pilot project we began with Cyber Towers and Shilparamam stretch towards Kukatpally as these are tourist spots," said Mahesh Kumar, AGM, Nagarjuna construction company (NCC). Once the biological waste is collected it would be taken to incinerators instead of garbage dump yards.