Medical waste dumped at Jondoru stream in Korok area - courtesy of Eye Radio

The Mayor of Juba City Council has issued a warning to medical facilities regarding compliance with waste management regulations. The directive was announced during the launch of Medwaste Solutions, an initiative focused on the handling and disposal of medical waste.

Mayor Christopher Sarafino Wani Swaka stated that the city council will utilize legal frameworks to ensure health facilities dispose of waste properly.

The Mayor identified the mixing of medical waste with general waste as a priority issue, noting that syringes, surgical blades, and blood-stained materials are appearing at general disposal sites.

According to the Mayor, improper disposal leads to waste entering water streams, rivers, and soil. He called for audits in facilities to monitor waste segregation and accountability.

“There are going to be legal frameworks that are going to apply to it and there’s going to be enforcement and of course with the enforcement that where city council comes in,” Mayor Wani stated.

“I just want to mention to all the owners of the medical facilities that are here that the key word that we should talk about is compliance because if we don’t comply we’re going to enforce.”

“Issues of sharp objects, syringes, surgical blades, even blood stain or maybe blood that that was transfused and the parts remain all dumped in general waste and taken to the dumping site. This has become a very big problem.”

“Up the stream of the terrain gets washed down to the streams, end up in the river, end up in our soil, our children are going to play with it then definitely you know also they’re going to infect them really so it’s making more harm than good. There must be also aspects of audits in these facilities.”

Sarah Louis, the project manager for Medwaste Solutions, stated that assessments of healthcare facilities revealed that waste is being stored for periods exceeding one year. She noted that the initiative will introduce systems for segregation, transport, and disposal using multi-chamber incinerators for hazardous materials.

The company plans to conduct seminars for healthcare workers to improve waste separation. According to Louis, unmanaged waste contributes to the spread of infections and the contamination of water and soil.

“The launch of Medwaste Solutions was inspired by the urgent need to address gaps in safe medical waste handling, treatment and disposal across the healthcare system,” said Sarah.

“With increasing healthcare activities, unmanaged medical waste poses serious risks to public health and the entire environment. This initiative introduces structured, compliant and environmentally responsible waste management systems.”

“We went through different or various medical healthcare facilities and we learned that most of these healthcare facilities are actually storing medical waste for over even a year. So, for the statistics, we cannot say we have an exact number, but if we were to estimate our 100,000s of tons.”