Under the auspices of WHO sponsored Healthy City Programme a regional workshop on Medical Waste Management was held in Rajshahi on 27 and 28 August 2003. About 40 participants from DGGS, Civil Surgeon's office, Rajshahi, Rajshahi City Corporation, RMCH, Rajshahi University, DPHE, BELA, CARE, PRISM, WHO and India Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, Reviewed national progress and pilot projects in health care waste management in Khulna,

Sylhet, Chittagong, Dhaka and Rajshahi. Participants observed that the willingness to undertake meaningful clinical waste management was medical waste management in the cities. The following technical papers were presented at the workshop:
· Hospital Waste Management in Bangladesh by Dr. AKM Saidur Rahman, DG-Health, Dhaka
· Legal and Regulatory Issues and Medical Waste Management By S. Rizwana Hassan, Advocate, Supreme Court & Director Programmes, BELA.
· Hospital Waste Management in Rajshahi City by Dr. Mushfique Ahmed, Professor, University of Rajshahi
· Hospital Waste Management Experience in Khulna City by Kh. Anisur Rahman, Executive Director, PRISM Bangladesh, and Monir Alam Chowdhury, Coordinator,
· Community Based Urban Wastewater Treatment Project, PRISM Bangladesh
· Health Care Waste Management ; A Regional Perspective by Mr. Alexander Von Hildevrand, Regional Advisor, WHO/SEARO
· Strengths and Weakness of Rajshahi City Clinical Waste Management by Rezvi Sultan, Chief Health Officer, Rajshahi City Corporation.

The workshop drafted recommendations to the Government of Bangladesh and all those entities planning to undertake activities in promoting sound medical waste management (MWM). Recommendations included)
1. National guidelines on MWM, based on WHO Guidelines on Health Care Waste Management (Life cycle approach: waste minimistion, segregation, decontamination, secured transport and storage, disposal in a sustainable manner) and other suitable guidance should be published widely in Bangladesh;
2. Encourage establishing local level MWM committees (e.g at City Corporation level), that would coordinate, promote and monitor MWM activities, and ensure outreach to other committees or groups requiring capacity building and information sharing; e.g. hospital infection control committee, HIV-AIDS outreach programme;
3. Design holistic and comprehensive health care waste management approaches, including all the above and encouraging waste minimisation and on-site disinfection and health risk-minimised final disposal through acceptable methods;
4. Increase experience and generate data on MWM through action -oriented pilots;
5. Promote non-burn MWN technologies and select technological options best adapted to the particular setting or situation.