A project worth around 8 million USD will help better the management of medical waste in Vietnam towards reducing emissions of organic compounds and mercury that are resistant to environmental degradation.

The majority of the funding for the project, which was approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, will come from non-refundable aid totaling 7 million USD to be provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the World Bank (WB).

The remaining 1 million USD will be covered by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The project will look at medical waste management in Vietnam, develop management solutions and pollution control measures to reduce emissions of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), persistent toxic substances (PTS), and mercury generated from health sector activities.

State of the art technologies will be used and best environmental practices in the management of medical waste to reduce POPs, PTS and mercury emissions into the environment will be applied.

Other priorities of the project include enhanced capacity in building policy framework, laws and regulations and provision of technical guidelines on the issue.

All measures aim to minimise pollution, environmental degradation and potential risks to human health.

The scheme will be carried out from 2013 to 2017 by the Ministry of Health.

Source: VNA