Pune: Biomedical waste along rivers challenges ploggers

PUNE: Citizens and ploggers involved in clean-up drives across different stretches of rivers in the city have said the biggest challenge is the amount of biomedical waste dumped along the rivers.
Vivek Gurav, who started the movement Pune Ploggers, which undertakes clean-up drives every weekend across different river stretches across the city, said it was a chronic problem.
“We find a range of biomedical waste freely dumped along the riverbanks. We have approached different Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) departments about the waste and sought advice on how to go about disposing this waste. They took it from us at the time and said they would take care of it. However, we are still unsure as to how to go about disposing the biomedical waste,” he said.
He said they had spotted such waste at different spots across the city. “We have found it near Bhide Bridge along the Mutha river. We discovered syringes, two packets of needles and many test tubes containing blood samples,” he added.
Fellow plogger and student Bhushan More (19) said, “I discovered the bag of needles dumped along the Mutha river banks. We have no idea how to clear this.” He added that they came across this kind of waste quite often during plogging sessions.
Shailaja Deshpande, founder director of Jeevitnadi, which conducts river clean-up drives across the city, also said they had discovered such waste along the rivers mostly near crematoriums.
“We found a lot of such biomedical waste usually near the crematoriums along the river banks. We not only find biomedical waste, but bedsheets, mattress and pillows dumped along the banks. As far as biomedical waste is concerned, we generally find syringes, adult diapers, medicines, pads and injection bottles,” Deshpande said.
Dnyaneshwar Molak, head of the civic body’s solid waste department said they tried to clear biomedical waste at source.
“The PMC’s biomedical waste collection entails a system where we collect biomedical waste from each hospital. If there is such waste dumped along the river sides, we will try and carry out an enquiry on the sites where it is found and take action,” he said.