Wastewater treatment, utilization and management in Sri Lankan healthcare sector : case of state sector hospitals

Abstract

Hospitals are highly populated facilities which functions 24 hours a day. They generate large amount of wastewater through various sources which are very complex and hazardous. Furthermore, the emission of healthcare wastewater into the cities sewerage, rivers and groundwater pollute the entire system. Therefore, disposal of healthcare wastewater without adequate treatment can cause short and long term ill effects to public’s health. An onsite wastewater treatment would give a duel benefit of preventing the release of hazardous materials into other sources and bring the wastewater into the consumption cycle. At present, most of the countries utilize the treated wastewater in order to reduce the consumption of potable water. However, the literature review and preliminary studies revealed that wastewater management is poorly practiced in Sri Lankan healthcare sector. Therefore, this paper aimed to identify the extent of wastewater treatment, utilization and management in Sri Lankan state sector hospitals. The aim of the paper was achieved through literature review and questionnaire survey. The required data was collected from nine state hospitals in Colombo. Findings of the study revealed that a high quality of wastewater treatment and efficient reuse of reclaimed water is a big challenge for the healthcare sector due to the complex nature of wastewater process, higher cost of treatment and poor management. Moreover, it was found that currently wastewater generated from the state hospitals are discharged directly in to the cities sewerage without any treatment. Finally this paper discusses the current level of wastewater treatment, utilization and management in the state hospitals and identifies the critical barriers for the lack of poor practice of wastewater handling.