Background

The United Nations in Bangladesh is supporting the Government of Bangladesh to find innovative solutions to its development challenges through the broad framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aligning activities with the governments various national policies including but not limited to the 7th / 8th five-year plan. From the United Nations system, UNDP takes a lead in the organizations work on the environment, climate change, green and renewable energy, rule of law, electoral reform, access to justice, human rights and human security, public administration, local governance and capacity development of democratic institutions like the Election Commission, the Judiciary, the National Human Rights Commission, the Bangladesh Police and the Parliament etc. UNDP's two programming clusters take lead in advocating for policy reforms to capacity development, from the implementation of national policies to awareness-raising at the grassroots level, etc. Waste generation is inherent to the healthcare sector across the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, infectious healthcare waste is a rapidly increasing waste stream and is overwhelming waste treatment facilities. Under normal conditions, up to 85% of the waste generated in health-care facilities is comparable to domestic waste and usually referred to as non-hazardous or general health-care waste. Only about up to 25% is considered to be hazardous and requires special treatment processes to reduce risks of infection to patients, hospital staff and nearby communities, as well as pollution of the environment.

On an average, every day the 26 hospitals of CHT in Bangladesh produce more than 3,120 Kg/day. By installing the heavy-duty autoclaves in these 26 public hospitals and municipalities the waste rates can be approximately reduced by 2,652 kg/day and a total of 702 tons can be sterilized by autoclave annually.

UNDP Bangladesh has designed a project to support national governments, health agencies and stakeholders involved in the Health Care Waste Management to deploy locally appropriate health care waste management practices and technologies to help address both infectious and noninfectious healthcare challenges during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic to protect human health and help minimize the pandemic's environmental and social impacts.