The French Embassy in Vietnam and the French Agency for International Business Development (UBIFRANCE) April 12 hosted a seminar in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi to give out technological solutions to medical waste treatment in the country. During the event, participants proposed to use microorganic technology in the medical waste treatment in a bid to ease the environment pollution. The treatment method will be initially carried out in five central-level hospitals and five provincial hospitals in the Mekong Delta provinces. Catherine Galtier, CEO of APB Environment in Vietnam said the organization will recommend solutions in line with Vietnam’s sustainable development policy to reduce carbon emissions in the environment. Up to 56% of hospitals across Vietnam fail to build medical waste treatment systems, posing a great threat to the environment and people’s health, Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Ministry of Health’s Department of Health Environmental Management. At present, the daily amount of released medical wastewater is about 150,000cu.m, which will double to 300,000cu.m by 2015 while local hospitals discharge 350-400 tons of solid waste per day, including 40 tons of toxic waste, Nga attributed. Therefore, the demand for medical garbage treatment in Vietnam is very huge and is becoming an urgent need, he added. The Health Ministry has borrowed $150 million from the World Bank for medical waste treatment, in which $140 million will be used for building waste treatment systems and $10 million for developing policies and observatory systems. (Nguoi Lao Dong – Laborer April 12)
