most Andhra Pradesh hospitals lack facilities to treat the hazardous pile-up of waste that is generated everyday. There are more than 400 hospitals in the city and the total number of beds available is around 25,000. According to conservative estimates, at least one and a half kg of hazardous waste is produced from each bed per day. Almost all hospitals barring a few corporate ones, do not have treatment facilities to safely dispose of the dangerous waste.

Though the dumping of hospital waste amounts to gross violation of the Bio-medical waste (management and handling) Rules, in 1998, issued by the Union ministry of environment and forest, the law is breached more often than observed. Following instructions from the Union ministry, the state government has formed an advisory board comprising members from various departments in February 1999. However, since then the committee has met only twice.