Timor-Leste PacWastePlus Project

The National Directorate for the Environment under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Environment and the Ministry of Health sought to implement several interconnected activities.

Project Description

Situation in 2018

The exposure to wastes generated in health care facilities has direct health impacts on the community, the personnel working in healthcare facilities, and the environment. Poorly handled medical wastes by health care professionals, and waste management personnel have led to an elevated chance of disease and sickness. Improper management of healthcare wastes (through open burning) on land adjacent to hospitals is leading to large areas of contaminated land, unusable for other purposes, and in need of remediation.

What was the Timor-Leste Project About?

The Timor-Leste country project sought to:
create a national policy for the management of healthcare wastes that support local hospital healthcare waste management planning enhance capacity building leading to proper planning for healthcare waste handling and disposal, support for waste transport infrastructure, and the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and undertake the clean-up of soils/debris from the improper disposal and land surface burning of medical waste in the fields adjacent to Baucau Hospital

Future Situation

Land and water pollution caused by contaminated burn fields at Baucau Hospital is no longer an issue due to the removal of waste from those burn fields. Inappropriately managed healthcare waste from Guido Valadares National Hospital (Dili); Baucau Referral Hospital (Baucau); Maliana Referral Hospital (Maliana); Suai Referral Hospital (Suai); and Maubisse Referral Hospital (Maubisse) is eliminated as hospital healthcare waste management plans are enacted.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

1.  Create national integrated health care waste management system.
2.  Baucau hospital grounds are free of contamination caused by historic open burning of healthcare waste.
3.  Health care workforce is implementing hospitals healthcare waste plans.

Key Outcomes from Project Implementation

Key Outcomes & Impacts

The  project  enabled  the  systemic management   of   healthcare waste management through the development and implementation of national strategies, legislative strengthening, and operational activities.

Developed  and  implemented Healthcare Waste Management environment through the adoption and implementation of a National Healthcare Waste Management Strategy, development and delivery of industry vocational training to public health workers through-out the country, the standardisation of this training for all existing and future employees of Ministry of Health and their health care facilities, and the development and implementation of facility based healthcare management plans and their implementation.

This healthcare waste management environment was further supported by the repair commissioning and operation of incinerators, and the construction and use of the first ever integrated onsite health care waste management facility at Baucau Hospitals which includes an incinerator for infectious wastes; and a sharps pit and an anatomical pit. This is now an operational model for all other healthcare facilities. Further integration with another development partner project (EIB Healthcare waste management ) to implement the national healthcare waste management strategy with facility based diversions and management infrastructure identified in the strategy, provided by this project.

Key Project Achievements

• 1 National Waste Management Guideline developed
• 1 National healthcare waste strategy development
• 12 m3 of burned medical waste was cleaned from the soils around Baucau Hospital and placed in a landfill cell and capped
• 3 Healthcare waste incinerators at three separate hospitals were repaired and returned to use
• 108 Healthcare professionals were trained in proper healthcare waste management
• 3 Healthcare waste facilities were constructed at Baucau Hospital for reducing the impact of infectious wastes

Supporting Documents

The following table provides a complete list of all documents developed during the project, including technical guidelines, training materials, reports, and communication resources. Where possible, links to the documents hosted on the SPREP website have been included to enable direct access.