Billowing hospital smoke causes misery for residents

Thirteen months after the Ministry of Environment's dispatched officers to inspect the stack with a view to identifying possible risks associated with it and to advise the hospital on their finding, neither the hospital nor the health ministry has done anything to rectify the problem.

The Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism assigned a two-person team from its Pollution Control Unit in January last year to do an inspection of the stack and the immediate area, and also to interview residents and hospital staff following complaints from residents.   The inspection team noted, among other things, that the stack did not conform to the mandatory 'seven metres above rooftops', it has been built too close to residential houses - for example it stands only 20 metres from the nearest homestead, and residents were bound to some from 'fugitive smoke'. It is stated that homesteads 20 metres away from the boiler were bound to suffer the fugitive smoke.