Staff Reporter
The federal capital with an increasing population of over 2 million generates 500 to 600 tonnes of garbage per day where the scavengers or rag-pickers managing that garbage from households to dumping sites are facing serious health risk.
Talking to media, spokesperson Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Dr Waseem Khawajah said the rag-pickers are mostly at the risk to catch diarrhea, typhoid, paratyphoid and health complications related to liver, stomach and intestine due to bacterial contamination.
He said they were picking household garbage from dumpsters, waste heaps and even nullahs which increases their vulnerability to catch harmful diseases if they continue to eat and drink with those hands.
“They should wear proper uniform, masks and safety gloves to avoid direct contact with household waste and properly wash hands with sanitizers and hand wash that are easy to carry and use,” he added.
Director Sanitation Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) Sardar Khan Zimri said the garbage collecting sanitary staff had no proper kits rather they were not wearing gloves and masks as per their choice. “Most of the scavengers working privately are Afghan and are illegally working in the sector and do not fall in our jurisdiction.
So that MCI could insist them to wear safety gloves and masks to protect them from negotiating infectious diseases. The waste being collected by rag-pickers is only household waste whereas a strict implementation of hospital waste management has been ensured through Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and there is no open dumping of hospital waste,” he added.
