Only 15 state-owned hospitals in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi have been equipped with medical wastewater treatment facilities so far, making up 35% of its public hospitals, showed statistics by the municipal health department. Just 15 other hospitals out of 43 have worked out master plans to build wastewater treatment systems while 11 ones have failed to build such systems, posing a great threat to the environment and human health. Hanoi is suffering from serious environmental pollution, especially medical waste-related issues, experts said, adding that it will spend VND66 billion ($3.19 million) to install medical wastewater treatment systems in state-run hospitals and medical units to cope with the matter. Residents, companies and hospitals in the city are estimated to discharge nearly 458,000 cubic meters of wastewater a day, including 41% from domestic wastewater, 57% from industrial wastewater and 2% from medical wastewater. (Kinh Te & Do Thi – Urban & Economy July 13)
