OP/BP 4.01 and Medical Waste Management

• Pages: 205-206

Contenidos

• The Issue.
• Legal and Policy Considerations.
• Practice Example.
• References.

Page 205

The Issue

All projects proposed for World Bank financing are screened for environmental impact. Depending on the type, location, sensitivity, and scale of the project and the nature and magnitude of its potential environmental impacts, proposed projects are assigned a classification that determines the further actions to be taken, if any, to reduce and manage risks associated with the project. These measures are spelled out in Operational Policy/Bank Procedure (OP/BP) 4.01.

HIV/AIDS projects typically include prevention, care and treatment and mitigation activities. Some of these activities lead to waste products (including infectious and pathological waste) that can pose serious threats to health workers and communities if not properly handled and disposed of. In addition to health care waste management of HIV-specific activities, projects may also finance the strengthening of medical and biomedical waste management systems in public health facilities more generally.

Legal and Policy Considerations

Environmental assessment of the waste management issues in HIV/AIDS projects typically triggers a Category B classification under OP 4.01. The OP and its accompanying BP detail the actions to be taken (a) by the Borrower with respect to the preparation of safeguard documents (such as risk assessments and management plans), public consultation, disclosure, compliance, and monitoring and progress reporting; and (b) by the Bank in processing the project. In countries with health care waste management systems that reflect the objectives and operational principles of OP/BP 4.01, under the provisions of OP 4.00, the Bank may simply authorize the application of existing country systems for Bank funded projects.

The legal documents for the project must include one or more covenants recording the Borrower's commitment to implement medical waste management plans approved by the Bank and ensuring applicability of the Bank's remedies in case of noncompliance. The Bank does not finance project activities that would contravene the country's obligations under international agreements as identified during the environmental assessment (OP 4.01, para. 3). The relevant conventions are: the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal.

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