Fire at Bhalswa landfill

Prateek Chauhan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 11

Adding to the pollution crisis in the national Capital is a fire raging in Bhalswa landfill in North Delhi that began in the early hours today.

Bhalswa (40-acre) is the largest landfill in the city and gets about 2,700 tonne of garbage per day.

Deadly methane gas is produced from the decomposing waste in the 60-m high mountain of garbage, located near Azadpur Mandi. Toxic smoke has spread all over the area, reducing visibility here.

Discarding the set standard, the garbage of the major part of the city is being dumped everyday at the site. In 2006, authorities had said that the landfill has reached its limit, but still garbage is being dumped here.

The irony is that for the disposal of the waste the norms set by the Union Environment Ministry are not being followed even after a disaster has been witnessed in the past. After disposing of the waste here mud is not being put due to which there is always fire at the landfill site. People, especially children living in the nearby area, are becoming victims of life-threatening diseases like cancer.

Due to the continuous negligence of the government agencies, people have raised the demand of closing of the landfill site many times. They have even organised agitations on the spot many times and matter was raised in the Parliament as well, but the outcome was zero.

The condition is such that even today there is fire on the site. Now the NGT once again has given directions to the Chief Secretaryn but seeing the earlier experiences, the environmentalists are worried that this order like earlier ones might not be brushed under the carpet.