Press release - WES supporting Medical Waste Management in Palestine
Medical waste is one of the most difficult substances to handle. It is considered hazardous because it may possess infection dangers and can cause unsafe effects on the environment and human health. The collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of medical waste therefore constitutes an environmental problem that poses an important health risk and calls for an integrated and sustainable management.
The Master Plan for the treatment of medical waste in Palestine was developed in 2006 by the Environment Quality Authority (EQA) and the national law on medical waste management was passed in 2013. Since then, several remediation measures have been proposed to tackle the problematic areas of medical waste management. It is clear though, that more efforts need to be made to improve the medical waste management in an effective and integrated manner. Cooperation among key actors of the medical waste chain is pivotal, including the Ministry of Health, the Environmental Quality Authority, the Ministry of Local Government and also Non-Governmental Organizations working in this field as well as the private sector.
Read the Arabic version here