On February 10, Farsana Parvin did a Facebook live video from the Adoor General Hospital in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. The video by this student highlighting the waste and garbage issues at the hospital had caught the attention of the general public as well as the state’s Health Minister KK Shailaja.
Farsana had come to the Adoor General hospital to meet a friend’s cousin, who was admitted there. In the video, she talks about the waste that has accumulated right outside the pay-ward of the hospital. She shows visuals of the wastewater and garbage that have collected outside the ward through the window of the patient’s room.
“I can just show you the visuals but only the people who are staying here know the difficulty of tolerating this stench,” says Farsana, as she closes the window in the patient’s room. She goes on to say that it is evident from the looks of it that the wastewater which is collected in the hospital premises has been there for many weeks.
When Farsana and her friend confronted the superintendent of the hospital regarding the issue that is causing discomfort to the patients as well as raising serious health concerns, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said that the issue is known to everyone there and that it had been there right from the time he joined the hospital six months back.
In the video, you can see both Farsana and her friend questioning the superintendent whether that is enough justification for the garbage menace. On being questioned further, the superintendent summoned the security and ordered him to whisk the two students out of his room.
TNM on Monday got in touch with Dr Nishad, the Residential Medical Officer (RMO) of Adoor General Hospital, to find out about the current situation.
“The wastewater is collected in what is called a soak pit. It means that when the septic tank gets full, the excess water flows into the soak pit. This is where all the kitchen waste and the bathroom waste gets collected,” said Nishad. He claims that the wastewater is supposed to be absorbed into the soil, but that has not been happening.
The RMO says that the hospital authorities and the municipality have tried to work out various ways to solve this issue. “We had dug a few extra pits near the soak pit and diverted all the waste into it but even that got full and the waste was not being absorbed into the ground. Then we tried methods using machines to suck the load out. Sucking out one load costs Rs 7,000. So per day, we have gone up to sucking around 8 loads but we saw that the pit gets full again within a couple of days.”
Health Minister intervenes
A day after Farsana took to Facebook to raise the issue, the Kerala Health Minister put up a Facebook post stating that she came across the live video and that she has instructed the District Collector and the District Medical Officer (DMO) to submit a report.
“It was decided to set up a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) as a permanent solution to this issue. The Government has also sanctioned Rs 91 lakh for this. Once the election Code of Conduct is over, we will move ahead with the tender process,” said KK Shailaja.
According to the Health Minister, the DMO stated that this problem started after the new block in the hospital was constructed. “The present drainage system used to overflow before as well but the Municipality had set up a small plant. But now, because of the extra building, it is overflowing as the marshy land is not able to absorb the excess wastewater,” explained KK Shailaja, who added that she has instructed the District Collector to take urgent measures to tackle the issue.