The Directorate of Municipal Administration has come out with directives for waste management of houses where residents have been quarantined. This comes after the High Court of Karnataka directed the government to take special measures to protect pourakarmikas while they collect waste from houses where persons subjected to home quarantine reside.
Waste from households under quarantine should be put in yellow non-chlorinated plastic bags, and be treated as biomedical waste. Once collected, these bags and their contents must either be incinerated or buried deep in a pit at a common biomedical treatment facility, as per the Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016. If yellow non-chlorinated plastic bags are unavailable, district health officials and jurisdictional officials of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board have to take appropriate action.
Waste should be picked up from such homes in a separate vehicle. Pourakarmikas and vehicle drivers should be provided with the necessary safety gear, such as gloves, goggles and gowns. Once the waste has been transported to the designated waste management facility, the vehicle should be washed with hypochlorite solution – 1% every day. Local bodies must check the temperature of civic workers by using thermal sensors before and after the waste pick up every day. If any of the civic workers fall ill, they must immediately be sent to the district/taluk hospitals for medical treatment.
Civic bodies have been directed not to terminate the services of workers if they take leave or remain absent during this period. Masks and gloves from non-quarantine houses should not be mixed with other waste.
