High Court bench to hear rule in 2018 writ over treatment plants for medical waste

The High Court has fixed for hearing the rule issued on a writ petition seeking a direction to set up treatment plants, individually or centrally, for treating medical waste at hospitals and healthcare institutions. The hearing will be held by a High Court bench of Justice Md Khosruzzaman and Justice Mubina Asaf.

Lawyer Syed Mahidul Kabir will take part in the hearing for the writ. He said on Tuesday that the court set November 2 for the rule hearing, and the hearing will take place once the writ rises in the cause list. The initiative for the rule hearing was recently taken in the High Court bench led by Justice Md Khosruzzaman.

The case began in 2018. On February 4 that year, an English daily published a report titled “Hazardous waste heaped in open bins”, highlighting the adverse impact on the environment and public health of medical waste dumped in open places. In response, Ahmed Al Amin, a registered graduate of Jahangirnagar University and a journalist, sent legal notices on February 14 that year demanding necessary action. Receiving no reply, he filed the writ in the relevant High Court branch on March 19 that year.

The writ made respondents of the secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the health secretary, the home secretary, the director general of the Department of Environment, the director general of the Directorate General of Health Services, the deputy director of the Department of Environment’s Chattogram region, and the secretary general of the Bangladesh Private Clinic and Diagnostic Owners Association.

After a preliminary hearing, a High Court bench of Justice Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal issued the rule with an interim order on April 8, 2018. The rule asked why a direction should not be given to set up waste treatment plants (ETPs), separately or centrally, for the disposal and recycling of waste at all healthcare institutions including hospitals and diagnostic centres. It also asked why steps should not be directed to protect the environment and citizens’ health in the disposal, recycling and transport of medical waste.

The writ says medical waste is being heaped in open places in front of various hospitals and clinics in Chattogram and that most healthcare institutions are operating without clearance from the Department of Environment; according to the petitioner, this also reflects the poor state of medical waste management across the country. It further says the environment law and the Medical Waste Management Rules, 2008 are not being properly followed, hospital waste is mixing with ordinary household waste and polluting the environment, and many large hospitals and private clinics have no waste treatment plant, putting the environment and public health at grave risk.