New Delhi
CNN
—
At the Bhalswa landfill in northwest Delhi, a steady stream of jeeps zigzag up the pile to dump more trash on the pile that is now more than 62 meters (203 feet) tall.
Heat and methane fires break out sporadically – the Delhi Fire Department has responded to 14 fires so far this year – and some fires deep beneath the pile can smolder for weeks. or months, while men, women, and children worked nearby, sifting through the trash to find items for sale.
Some of the 200,000 residents living in Bhalswa say the area is uninhabitable, but they cannot afford to move and have no choice but to breathe toxic air and bathe in contaminated water. polluted.
Bhalswa is not Delhi’s biggest dump. It is about three meters lower than the largest Ghazipur, and both contribute to the country’s total methane production.
Methane is the second most common greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, but a stronger cause of the climate crisis because methane traps more heat. According to GHGSat, which monitors methane via satellite, India generates more methane from landfills than any other country.
And India is second only to China in terms of total methane emissions, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Global Methane Monitor.
As part of his “Clean India” initiative, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said efforts are being made to remove these mountains of garbage and turn them into green areas. That goal, if achieved, could alleviate some of the suffering of residents living in the shadow of these landfills – and help the world reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
India wants to reduce methane production but has not joined 130 countries yet people who have subscribed to Global Methane Pledgea pact that aims to collectively cut global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. Scientists estimate the cuts could reduce global temperature rise 0 .2% – and help the world meet its goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
India has said it will not participate because most of its methane emissions come from agriculture – around 74% from farm animals and rice fields compared to less than 15% from landfill.
In a statement last year, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Ashwini Choubey said India’s commitment to reduce total methane production could threaten farmers’ livelihoods and affect its economic and trade prospects. India.
But it also faces challenges in reducing methane from fuming piles.
When 72-year-old Narayan Choudhary moved to Bhalswa in 1982, he said it was a “beautiful place,” but that all changed 12 years after the first piles of trash started arriving in the local landfill.
In the years since, the Bhalswa landfill has grown to nearly the height of the historic Taj Mahal, becoming a landmark in its own right and an eyesore that envelops the surrounding homes, affect the health of the people living there.
Choudhary has chronic asthma. He said he nearly died when a huge fire broke out in Bhalswa in April and burned for days. “I was in bad shape. My face and nose were swollen. “I was on my deathbed,” he said.
“Two years ago we protested… a lot of residents from this area protested (to get rid of the waste),” Choudhary said. “But the city is not cooperating with us. They assured us that things would be better in two years but here we are, there is no relief.”
According to a 2020 report on India’s landfills from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), a non-profit research agency in New Delhi, the landfill ran out of capacity by 2002, but without government standardization in recycling systems and greater industry efforts to reduce plastic consumption and production, tons of trash continue to arrive at this site daily.
Bhalswa isn’t the only dump that annoys nearby residents – it’s one of three in Delhi, overflowing with decomposing waste and releasing toxic gases into the air.
The country has more than 3,100 landfills. Ghazipur is the largest in Delhi, standing 65 meters (213 feet) tall, and like Bhalswa, it surpassed its waste disposal capacity in 2002 and is now generating huge amounts of methane.
According to GHGSat, on a single day in March, more than two tons of methane leaked from the site every hour.
GHGSat CEO Stephane Germain said: “If sustained for a year, the methane leaking from this landfill would have a climate impact similar to the annual emissions from 350,000 US cars. Ky”.
Methane emissions aren’t the only hazard emanating from landfills like Bhalswa and Ghazipur. Over the decades, dangerous toxins have seeped into the ground, polluting the water that supplies thousands of nearby residents.
In May, CNN commissioned two accredited labs to test groundwater around the Bhalswa landfill. And according to the results, groundwater within a radius of at least 500 meters (1,600 feet) around the landfill was contaminated.
In the first lab report, the ammonia and sulfate levels were significantly higher than the acceptable limits set by the Indian government.
Results from the second lab report showed that the level of total dissolved solids (TDS) – the amount of inorganic salts and organic matter dissolved in water – detected in one of the samples was nearly 19 times the limit for allowed, making the water unsafe for human consumption.
Bureau of Indian Standards sets the acceptable limit of TDS at 500 milligrams/liter, a number that is almost considered “good” of the World Health Organization (WHO). Anything above 900 mg/l is considered “poor” by WHO and above 1,200 mg/l is “unacceptable”.
According to Richa Singh from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), the TDS of water taken near the Bhalswa area is between 3,000 and 4,000 mg/l. “Not only is this water unsuitable for drinking, it is also not suitable for skin contact,” she said. “So it can’t be used for purposes like bathing or cleaning utensils or cleaning clothes.”
Dr Nitesh Rohatgi, senior director of medical oncology at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, urged the government to study the health of the local population and compare it with other parts of the city, “to in 15 to 20 years, we don’t look back and regret that we had higher rates of cancer, higher health risks, higher health problems, and we haven’t looked back and Timely repairs.”
Most people in Bhalswa rely on bottled water for drinking, but they use the local water for other purposes – many say they have no other choice.
“The water we get is contaminated, but we have to helplessly store it and use it to wash utensils, shower and sometimes even drink,” said resident Sonia Bibi, who has a thick red rash on her feet. know.
Jwala Prashad, 87, who lives in a small hut in an alley near the landfill, said the pile of rotting trash had turned his life into “hell on earth”.
“The water we use is light red. My skin burns after showering,” he said as he tried to soothe the red incisions on his face and neck.
“But I can’t afford to leave this place,” he added.
More than 2,300 tons of municipal solid waste arrive at Delhi’s largest landfill in Ghazipur every day, according to a Report released in July by a joint committee formed to seek to reduce the number of fires at the site.
That’s most of the waste from the surrounding area – only 300 tonnes are disposed of and disposed of by other means, the report said. And less than 7% of old waste has been biologically extracted, including excavation, treatment and potentially reusing old waste.
The Delhi City Company deploys drones every three months to monitor the size of the pile, and is testing ways to extract methane from the mountain of garbage, the report said.
But too much garbage is coming every day to keep up. The commission said bio-mining has been “slow and delayed” and it is “very unlikely” that the East Delhi City Corporation (now merged with the North and South Delhi Cities Corporation) will achieve achieve the goal of “flattening the mountain of garbage” by 2024.
“There is no effective plan to reduce the height of the garbage mountain,” the report said. Furthermore, “it should have been suggested long ago that future dumping of garbage would contaminate the groundwater system,” the report added.
CNN sent a series of questions along with data from the water test questionnaire to India’s Ministry of Environment and Health. No response from the department yet.
In a 2019 report, the Indian government recommended ways to improve the country’s solid waste management, including formalizing the recycling sector and installing more composting plants. domestic.
While some improvements have been made, such as better collection and treatment of waste at home, Delhi’s landfills continue to accumulate waste.
In October, the National Green Court fined the state government more than $100 million for not disposing of more than 30 million tons of waste across three state landfills.
Singh from CSE said: “The problem is that Delhi does not have a concrete action plan on solid waste. “So we’re talking here about landfill remediation and old waste disposal, but imagine new waste being generated on a regular basis. All of that is being dumped every day in these landfills.”
“(So) let’s say you’re dealing with 1,000 tons of legacy (waste) and then you dump 2,000 tons of new waste every day, that becomes a vicious cycle. It will be a never-ending process,” Singh said.
“Of course, heritage waste management is mandated by the government and is very, very important. But you cannot start the process without a new waste replacement facility. So that is the biggest challenge.”
