Ecological Footprint Assessment of Hospitals in Solan City of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

This study was carried out in selected hospitals of Solan Town of Himachal Pradesh to assess the ecological footprint which appraised the load of different components namely electricity, water, food, material, transportation and biomedical waste, imposed by the hospitals on the natural environment. The total ecological footprint of all four selected hospitals of Solan town viz., Regional Hospital, Shiva Hospital, City Hospital and Sai Sanjivni Hospital was found to be 1553.75 gha 100.10 gha, 165.44 gha and 185.31 gha respectively during the year 2021. Transportation and material components registered the highest contribution towards the Ecological Footprint (EF) of the Hospitals and the lowest contribution was made by biomedical waste and electricity components. The maximum Ecological Footprint per area (6.02 gha) was exhibited by Sai Sanjivni Hospital and the minimum (0.75 gha) by the Regional Hospital. The sum Ecological Footprint for all the selected Hospitals was 2004.6 gha, whereas the average bio-capacity per capita was 0.0095 gha. It was concluded that the Ecological Footprint of all selected hospitals exceeded bio-capacity, resulting in un-sustainability. The hospitals had extremely poor bio-capacity, making it hard for them to keep up with the expanding footprints.