In yesterday’s edition, we carried a gut-wrenching story about how a medical company dumped biological waste, which included blood vials, which children are now using as toys, at a site in Mt Hampden.
Comment: NewsDay Editor
It is unbelievable that a company that deals in medical processes can be this careless to dump waste in such an open place, exposing the community — worse off children — to disease.
Our story reveals that children in the area were smearing themselves with the coagulated blood and using it as make-up, a revolting image, which could bring a grown person to tears.
This is even made worse by the revelations that some of the blood at the scene could have been tested for typhoid and HIV and this reveals the scale to which the unknowing children could have been exposed to serious infection.
A company that deals with such waste is required by law to have an incinerator to avoid such situations where blood, which could be contaminated, is disposed in such a careless manner.
Government regulations state that every hospital or clinic is supposed to burn waste at high temperatures to ensure that there is no chance of contamination, thus, it does not make sense that this one institution decided to dump their waste in the open.
The Environmental Management Agency, the rural district council and the police have a job on their hands, to catch the culprits and bring them to book, as their behaviour is patently criminal.
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The courts should also make an example of the company responsible for this waste and jail the culprits, as a fine would be inadequate and not deterrent enough.
For the sake of ensuring that this never happens again, every parent or guardian, whose child could have been exposed to the waste, should approach the courts and sue the institution responsible for this medical waste dump on top of the criminal charges that the directors must face.
Communities that are often used as a dumpsite — often poor and on the outskirts of major cities — should come together and ensure such medical waste dumps never happen and in the event that they do, they should report such incidents immediately.
We appreciate that the Mashonaland West provincial medical director, Wencelas Nyamayaro is dealing with the issue, but the scale of the problem demands that Health and Child Care minister David Parirenyatwa attends to the scene and speaks to the community.
Both the community and the nation need assurances that whoever is responsible for this disgusting act is immediately brought to book and that such incidences would never be allowed again.
