Delhi landfill burning

 India is currently facing a scorching heat wave with temperatures crossing 45 degrees celsius in many parts of the country. Amid the intolerable rising temperature, Delhi, India’s national capital saw fire breaking out in one of its landfills. The fire continued for four days as the emergency services failed to put it out as toxic fumes engulfed the area surrounding. This is not the first time that a fire broke out in Delhi’s landfills. The city has three areas where all of its garbage is dumped – Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa. At Ghazipur, there were 31 instances of fire in 2017-18, while there were 18 in 2018-19, and six in 2019-20. The one in Okhla did not report any fire during the same period. At Bhalswa, there were 135 such instances in 2017, 100 in 2018, 42 in 2019 and 3 in 2020. The latest incident too occurred in Bhalswa.

Fires break out in these landfills largely because waste segregation at source is still not a common practice in Delhi. Piles of untreated garbage, coupled with rising weather temperatures, lead to excess emission of methane, often resulting in blazes. Fire can break out at both the surface and subsurface level in these landfills. The subsurface ones are difficult to douse as they burn from the inside which is inaccessible to the fire-fighters by road. Experts have suggested that this is the likely cause of the prolonged fire at Bhalswa. Such incidents have major implications for the overall air quality in the city. The burning of garbage releases harmful gasses such as methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and sulphides of hydrogen and nitrogen. If the wind speed is low and the air is humid, the gasses can result in a suffocating effect. Further, at landfills the fire burns organic and inorganic matters which also releases various particulate matters harmful to the human body. It was noted that such incidents of fire worsen the air quality index with its readings being above 250 on many occasions.

The landfill fires are essentially a waste management issue at core. Policy makers have to implement strategies such as waste segregation, biomining of dumpsites, no biodegradable organic waste in dumpsites and dry waste recycling. However, implementation of such policies takes time and requires consensus of several parties involved to act urgently. How do the local residents or people of Delhi then seek relief from the toxic fumes discharged as a consequence of the blaze? It is not always possible for the locals to relocate to a different neighbourhood far away or a different city. During the California wildfires, we saw people with the available means, and who were willing to take the risk to leave all behind, flee the city. However, many could not and did not wish to do so. In such scenarios, people have adapted by bringing in technologies inside their homes that let them breathe relatively clean air. Certified air cleaners remove pollutants from the air. It removes particulate matter (including biological pollutants like mold spores, dust mites, bacteria, pet dander, viruses and smoke) and gaseous pollutants. Further, home/community composting also helps in waste management at the local level. Since biodegradable waste like food scraps comprise a chunk of what we throw away, it could be composted instead. This will reduce methane emissions from the landfill and lower overall carbon footprint. The residents of Delhi can adopt such strategies to combat the problem at the domestic level while necessary policies are implemented by the government to tackle the landfill burning issue at its roots.