The World Bank (WB) has approved a loan of 150 million U.S. dollars to Vietnam to implement a medical waste treatment project, the Vietnam Ministry of Health (MOH) reported on Monday.

The project focuses on three goals including perfecting policies in management of medical waste treatment in Vietnam, improving capability in processing medical waste at 500 hospitals, and enhancing capacity in managing, operating and checking medical solid and water waste system.

According to MOH, nearly 1,200 hospitals and more than 200 medical clinics and centers, and pharmaceutical producers and traders nationwide daily discharge about 350 tons of medical solid waste, by 2015, the figure is expected to increase to 600 tons per day.

To date, 63 percent of the hospitals have no waste treatment system, while 70 percent of the operating waste treatment facilities are under-standardized, only 50 percent of the hospitals classify or process the waste in line with MOH's regulations, MOH said.