Routine municipal system being used to dispose of garbage of the isolation/quarantine centres and hospitals would create a serious environmental hazard that would lead to further spread of the Covid-19 cases in the country.

This was one of the major concerns expressed by the concerned environmental activists who participated via the video-link in the virtual conference held by Central Standing Committee on Environment of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) in collaboration with National Forum for Environment & Health (NFEH) to mark the 50th year of the International Earth Day.

The concerned speakers said that urban centres like Karachi already lacked proper municipal waste disposal system as trash related to hospital, isolation and quarantine centres was an added burden on environment of the country.

The participants expressed that Pakistan lacks guidelines for running a special system to safely dispose of infected trash and clinical waste being generated by the isolation and quarantine centres and hospitals across the country where the patients of Covid-19 are being kept and treated as this issue could create a serious health and environmental emergency in the country.

Another serious concern expressed by the participants of the video conference was absence of a proper waste water treatment system in a big city like Karachi as this issue is a major challenge during the Covid-19 emergency as our overburdened public health system could not afford people catching waterborne diseases while the defective sewerage system could become a cause of spread of the fatal coronavirus.