Alarming Condition of Daha River(Siwan, Bihar, India) due to Biomedical waste

Mushroom growth of healthcare facilities (HCF) all over the globe for better health treatment leads to a huge burden upon the whole globe by releasing massive amounts of biomedical waste (BMW) through these HCF. There are so many problems raised nowadays due to these BMWs. Nosocomial infections are raised nowadays due to these BMWs, which are a serious problem. The whole environment is suffering from these infectious and hazardous BMW. The nature of BMW is solid, liquid and gaseous form. All forms are harmful and infectious and need proper and scientific management. Siwan town is a hub of HCFs, so here a massive amount of biomedical waste, both solid and liquid, is generated daily. This massive amount of solid BMW (more than 3 quintals of biomedical waste are released daily, according to data collection, DHS of Siwan, Bihar) is thrown openly here and there in the town and pollutes the whole environment as well as changes the chemistry of underground water because the chemicals present in it leach out and finally reach the groundwater level. Solid BMW management is under control to some extent by Medicare Environmental Management Pvt. Ltd., Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India. But here there is a lack of proper and scientific liquid BMW management. Liquid biomedical waste is directly released into water ecosystems/city-side rivers without any scientific treatment. In my present study only 10% of healthcare facilities are equipped with an effluent treatment plant (ETP) for the wastewater treatment process (WWTP) in the town, while 90% of the hospital’s drainage system is directly mixed into the domestic drainage system without any scientific treatment and finally released into the Daha River of Siwan (Bihar). In this way, potential disease-causing microorganisms reach the Daha River from all over the town and pollute the whole environment of the town and finally change the chemistry of the river water. In my study, the microbiological investigations of Sadar Hospital wastewater (drainage water) and Daha River water both show the presence of total coliforms (TC), faecal coliforms (FC), faecal staphylococcus (FSc), Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and E. coli. So, this article linked the microbiological findings between the wastewater sample of HCF and Daha River water. In my study the average value of BOD was 3.96 mg/L, which is higher than the permissible limit, and the average value of COD was 29.33 mg/L, which is very high compared to the permissible limit. The high value of BOD and COD clearly indicates that the Daha River is a polluted river.