The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board issued notice to Mettupalayam Government Hospital on February 9 following complaints that the autopsy waste was being drained into river Bhavani thereby polluting it.

In its notice, the PCB stated that it was brought to its notice that the hospital was letting out medical waste into a public drain leading to the the river without treating it. “It is in violation of Section 25 of The water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act. It is a punishable offence under Section 44 of the Act, with imprisonment for term not less than one-and-a-half years,” the notice noted.

The Board directed the hospital to treat the sewage and postmortem waste before letting it out into the public drain.

When contacted, Dr. S. Seralathan, Chief Medical Officer(CMO) of the hospital told Covai Post that
the hospital has requested the Public Works Department (PWD) to construct a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in the hospital. “But the entire waste from the hospital is not discharged directly into the drainage. Only liquid waste in the form of water is being let out to the drainage, which finally ends up in Bhavani, he said.”

“Other wastes include waste water from the morgue was discharged through the soak points within the hospital premises and is no way connected to the common drainage system. I have written to our Joint Director Tamilmani about the PCB notice. We will respond to the notice very soon,” Seralathan added.

“Mettupalayam GH is a taluk headquarters hospital. We urge the Government to help us in at least meeting the minimum requirements for disposing off the waste and sewage. The sewage system in the hospital is not big enough to discharge the water into the drains and that is getting mixed with the river. Already the river is polluted,” said M.S.U. Mani ,Secretary of Save Bhavani Trust, Mettupalayam.