The two wards are ward no-49 in Dhanmondi where some 40 private clinics and pathological laboratories are located and ward no-57, an area including Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) and its adjacent areas.

This was said at a clinical waste management training programme jointly organised by DCC and PRISM Bangladesh, a project in agriculture, rural industry, science and medicine at the DCC auditorium yesterday.

Some 160 participants from 25 private clinics and diagnostic centres of the city took part in the training.

DCC Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, attending the post-training discussions as chief guest said through coordination with the owners of private clinics and pathology centres, DCC will be able to manage the hazardous medical wastes scientifically.

"We should have thought about the clinical waste management long before. However, we have started and hopefully, now we are on the right track," he said.

Speaking as special guest Dr Maniruzzaman Bhuiyan, president, Bangladesh Private Clinic and Diagnostic Centre Owners' Association, which represents more than 700 members, said they will extend their all-out cooperation in management of hazardous clinical wastes.

DCC has allocated to PRISM Bangladesh one acre of land for clinical waste dumping at its Matuail dumping site and is preparing the land for the purpose, PRISM Bangladesh Executive Director Khondaker Anisur Rahman said.

"We expect to start our activities by March after finishing our primary works including a series of training to the hospital staff," he added.

PRISM will collect the waste from the clinics and dump it at the Matuail site, using separate vehicles.

Anisur Rahman pointed out some limitations to run the project, such as, lack of proper rules for waste management and limitations in case of state-run hospitals' participation in the project.

Some 200 tons of clinical wastes is generated daily in city's hospitals, clinics, pathologies and diagnostic centres which is very little compared to 3500 to 4000 tons of daily produced solid wastes in the capital, he said.

Presided over by DCC Chief Executive Officer Dr M A Momen, the discussion was attended, among others, by Chief Conservancy Officer Sohel Farouquie, Chief Health Officer Azizul Haque and representatives from different organisations including Japan International Cooperation Agency.