KATHMANDU, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have jointly launched a new initiative in Nepal to help seven hospitals in the South Asian country improve its healthcare waste management system so as to better handle the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN agency said Friday.
Efforts shall be devoted to upgrade the waste management system by providing support in the form of autoclaves to the seven hospitals across Nepal which treat COVID-19 patients, setting up waste treatment areas, and training healthcare workers on their use as well as the proper means to manage medical waste, the UNDP said in a press release.
The program, launched under the framework of China's South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund (SSCAF), will enable the UN agency to work together with the Department of Health Services under Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population.
"It is anticipated that 350 healthcare professionals will be provided with the required technical skill-set on proper management of healthcare waste," noted the press release. "Alongside this, 100 officials from the local government will also be trained on better handling of health emergencies."
In addition, youth volunteers from 300 urban and rural municipalities in Nepal will be mobilized to conduct an online campaign to raise awareness about medical waste management, the UNDP said.
Dr. Prakash Bahadur Thapa, chief of Bheri Hospital in Nepal's southwestern city of Nepalgunj which joins the program, told Xinhua that his hospital has been unable to better manage the wastes created by COVID-19 patients due to the lack of necessary human resources and equipment.
"We have to manage the wastes created by COVID-19 patients separately but this has not happened," he said. "We keep such wastes separately at the hospital but they are collected and taken together with other wastes of the hospital to be decomposed."
He said the availability of autoclaves would help to disinfect the wastes left by COVID-19 patients and remove the risk of being infected by the virus. "We have held talks with the UNDP regarding the matter and I expect we can better manage the wastes and use them to produce bio gas too," he added.
Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi hoped that Nepal would benefit from the project, and that "the haze of COVID-19 pandemic would disperse as soon as possible with the joint efforts of all countries around the world."
According to the UNDP, the initiative is part of the SSCAF COVID-19 regional project in Asia and the Pacific and will benefit over 1 million people.
