ILOILO CITY, Philippines – A total of 12 hospitals in the province of Iloilo lack sewerage treatment plant (STP) according to the DENR-Environment and Management Bureau (EMB) Region 6.
The environment office discovered such hospitals as having conventional septic tanks only, which overflow most of the time due to the volume of users. Such septic tanks need extra work and have to be dislodged from time to time.
The agency explained that conventional septic tanks are inefficient for large establishments such as hospitals. Also, wastewater from hospitals has sensitive contents which require special treatment process before being discharged. They can be harmful especially when it reaches bodies of water.
“Nakita natin na hindi kaya ng kanilang treatment facility sa ngayon that’s why nag-recommend tayo na iparehab nila ang nga mga waste water treatment facility sa lahat ng kanilang hospital,” Atty Ramar Neil Pascua, EMB-6’s OIC, said in local dialect.
(As we have seen earlier, the current treatment facility cannot handle it. That is why we recommended the rehabilitation of waste water treatment facilities of all hospitals in the province.)
EMB has no required design for STP as long as it is efficient and can accommodate the volume of users. Meanwhile, the provincial government and the Department of Health (DOH) have allocated P63 million for the upgrade of wastewater facility in hospitals. The upgrading process is expected to begin next month.
“Ang mga traditional muna na pag-disposed sa ating mga waste material ang ating mga septic tanks but dahil may mga hospital waste tayo iba kasi ang mga requirements nito so we have to comply with that,” said Iloilo provincial administrator Raul Banias.
(We dispose our waste the traditional way, but because there are hospital wastes, there are different requirements for it. We have to comply with that.)
EMB also reiterated to hospitals that proper wastewater disposal is among the requirement of DOH before acquiring a license to operate.— Lalaine Moreno / Marje Pelayo
The post 12 hospitals in Iloilo lack sewerage treatment facility appeared first on UNTV News.