Work in progress for construction of an effluent treatment plant in Sishu Bhavan. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, July 17: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Postgraduate Institute of Paediatrics, popularly known as Sishu Bhavan, will soon have its own state-of-the-art effluent treatment plant (ETP).

At present, all liquid bio-medical waste generated from Sishu Bhavan is being directly released into drains, raising concern over pollution. As per proposals, the ETP will play a crucial role to avoid contamination as, in the process, waste will be released after treatment.

“Efforts are on for proper biomedical waste management at Sishu Bhavan. Moreover, for management of the liquid biomedical wastes generated from the hospital, an effluent treatment plant will soon be established here,” said Sishu Bhavan’s superintendent H.K. Mohanty.

Mohanty said that solid waste was being treated through insulators, microwave and shredder. For the treatment and efficient management of liquid waste, the ETP was being established with the assistance of the public health department at a cost of Rs 49.50 lakh.

The Sishu Bhavan has a number of ancillary units, including laboratories to support the two main treating departments — paediatric medicine and paediatric surgery.

Hospital records indicate that there has been upward trend in patient turnout with the institute registering an attendance of 88,563 patients at the outpatient department in 2010-11 against 87,130 patients in 2009-10.

Besides the outpatient department, the institute had also registered an attendance of 12,968 patients in 2010-11 against 12,599 last year in the indoor admission. At present, the institute is functioning with 250 beds which include 40 beds of paediatric surgery, 21 ICU beds and 25 newborn beds. There are proposal to raise the number of beds to 356 in subsequent phases.

Keeping in view the rise in patients’ inflow, proper management of the biomedical waste is a need of the hour. Hence, the ETP will be established to treat the liquid waste and the project is expected to be completed within six months, said hospital sources.

The effluent treatment plant will be established to treat the liquid waste generated from various laboratories, ancillary units of the hospital and the operation theatre.

All the concerned departments and units will be connected and wastewater will be allowed to pass through the plant through plastic pipes before it is released into drains.

“All the departments including wards and operation theatres would be connected. The wastewater will then be treated at the ETP and will subsequently be released in the drain,” said assistant engineer (Cuttack works place division) Mihir Barik.

According to him, nearly 50,000 litres of wastewater would be treated at the ETP daily. After its completion, the ETP will function for almost 16 to 20 hours everyday. Work for connecting all the departments have already been completed, he said.