Explained: Why Delhi Fails To Deal With Its Overfilled Landfills

The latest incident of fire at the Bhalswa landfill zone in north Delhi has disrupted the lives and livelihoods of individuals and families living nearby, leaving them struggling to breathe. For days, the thick clouds of smoke began to fill the air with harmful black smoke and started turning the sky grey.

Although many people have been putting their lives at risk to earn their daily wages amid the fire, some have remained inside due to health concerns caused by the smoke.

AFP

Recently, the Delhi Assembly's public accounts council summoned the recently-appointed superintendent of the unified Delhi municipality on Monday, taking note of the city's "ever-increasing landfills'' and asked the police to provide audits, financial agreements, and expense updates considering the civil society's solid waste management by May 30.

Delhi¡¯s landfills

The dumpsites in Bhalswa and Ghazipur are among several landfill regions all across the city that have been provided as waste dumping areas for ages now.

AFP

Since its inception in 1994, the dumping ground in Ghazipur has risen to enormous proportions. It currently includes 80 acres of land and stands 65 metres tall. As per the Guardian, the waste disposal site's potential was surpassed over a decade ago, but it still receives over 2,500 tonnes of waste each day.

The Bhalswa dump site was built in 1984 and continues to stand more than 60 metres high and 50 acres broad, approximately equivalent to 50 football fields and a 17-story building.

These waste mountains or garbage dumps have lately been in the headlines for catching fire and raging for weeks. And, as with most dumpsites, putting out the blazes was a difficult task. To use an oversimplified definition, the garbage contains e-waste, medical waste, and a variety of complex disposal and plastics, among other things.

Segregation of waste

Waste segregation was made mandatory in the country in the SWM Rules (Solid Waste Management Rules) as early as 2000. Previously, municipal officials were responsible for waste segregation and then were channeled to implement a staged system to ensure community involvement.

BCCL

However, the updated SWM Rules of 2016 moved the onus to waste generators to properly dispose of into six different classifications, non-biodegradable, residential-hazardous, sanitary, construction-demolition, and horticulture (MoEFCC, 2016).

Furthermore, bye-legislations for SWM in Delhi were implemented earlier this year, emphasising waste generators' duty to disperse waste at the origin into biodegradable, non-biodegradable, and residential garbage (NDMC, 2018).

Nonetheless, despite the existence of penal statutes in the bye-legislation intended to facilitate waste segregation, composting, and restricting biodegradable and recyclable waste from entering the dump sites, the present state of the 3 sanitary landfills (at Okhla, Ghazipur, and Bhalswa) demonstrates a lack of stringent execution by the officials. When natural, hazardous, and recyclable waste materials are discarded together in the absence of separation, management becomes difficult.

Why do landfills catch fire so often?

Landfill blazes are unavoidable. These dumpsites are a major source of emission of methane. When municipal solid waste is first collected in a dumpsite, it goes through an aerobic (with o2) phase of decomposition that produces very little methane.

Reuters

Then, in a year or so, anaerobic situations are formed, and methane-producing organisms start decomposing the garbage and produce methane.

Methane, on the other hand, self-ignites at temperatures of 60-70 ¡ã C., which are quickly obtained at land?lls during warmer months. Plastic and other flammable waste are discarded in large quantities on the spot. As a result, even trace amounts of methane can cause a raging fire. This is what is happening in Ghazipur.

Threats posed by landfill sites

The Ghazipur dumpsite, an ugly mess, and continuous potential health hazard contribute significantly to Delhi's polluted air. 4 incidents of fire breaking in the waste mountain took place last year. In 2017, a significant proportion of it became detached and crash-landed on an adjacent road, killing 2 people.

Individuals in adjacent regions must breathe toxic air filled with harmful fumes as a result of the decomposing waste. This also contributes to the capital city's already polluted air. As per the World Air Quality report published in March, Delhi will become the world's most polluted capital city for the 4th year in a row in 2021.

Because proper segregation at the origin is not so popular in the city, dumpsites in and across Delhi have risen in size and amount over the last few decades. When untreated waste is combined with increased temperatures, it causes methane emissions, which frequently result in fires.

Possible way forward

Alternative solutions to the capital city's saturated landfill space, as per advisors, do not show a coherent or feasible solution for the issues. Any action plan for limiting a dump site or figuring a substitute landfill site first must assess the need to promote waste segregation, which can be accomplished by providing some reward to individual generators.

Reuters

Furthermore, landfill covering must be meticulously designed and carried out using scientific methodology. There is no explanation of how long it will be before waste from these weary landfill spaces starts flowing into the city only if additional waste disposal is barred and strict segregation is applied.

According to experts, another management approach that could be implemented is the bio-mining of these garbage dumps. Bio-mining is essentially a large step toward handling legacy garbage that has been sitting in dumpsites for a long time. Bio-mining entails removing waste from landfills, sorting it, treating it, and reclaiming the landfill ground.

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