Aafrin Kidwai 
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced waste management authorities to re-think their strategy. In order to facilitate the process, the UN-HABITAT has released a report titled ‘Strategy Guidance: Solid Waste Management Response to COVID-19’. While you can access the full report on the UN-HABITAT’s website, here is an excerpt:
There is a need to adequately and safely dispose of the collected waste from households and medical facilities dealing with COVID-19 treatment. Therefore, municipalities need to:
- Continue their waste management services.
- Make temporary changes in their waste management operations using existing resources and find quick-win solutions for maintaining continuity in operations as well as efficiency.
- Take the lead in mitigating risks to people involved formally and informally in the city’s waste management operations and those benefiting from such services.
Although several guidelines exist about the treatment of waste from healthcare facilities, there is a lack of guidance on how to adapt regular municipal waste management services to a pandemic situation. The present guidelines seek to address this and support decision makers in developing a solid waste management response strategy to the COVID-19 situation.
