A fire broke that out at the Bhalswa landfill in north Delhi on October 20 and raged through Sunday is yet to be doused completely, a Delhi Fire Service official said on Monday.
An official at the Jahangirpuri Fire Station said a call reporting the blaze was received around 4.30 p.m. on October 20. Two to three fire tenders were posted at the site after the call but dousing the fire was taking longer since “new fires keep breaking out at the site”, he said.
“Methane collects inside the landfill and fires keep breaking out inside the dump. We have been spraying water to contain the fire but it has not been very effective. The best way is to put silt on it,” the official said.
Stating that such fires were “common”, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation spokesperson said construction and demolition waste was being directed to the site to help douse the fire. He said nearly 1,800-2,000 metric tonnes of waste continues to be dumped at the site daily.
Waste management issue
Chitra Mukherjee, the programme director at non-government organisation at Chintan, which is engaged in improving waste management in the city, said such fires reveal the lack of proper waste management system in the city.
The Bhalswa landfill already exceeds the permissible height limit.
“The Bhalswa landfill reached its saturation limit a long time ago. If wet waste continues to get dumped there, such incidents will keep taking place. There is need for a decentralised waste management system to avoid such issues,” she said.
The North body recently sanctioned a “remediation plan” involving setting up pipes to tap methane trapped in the landfill and to cover it, Standing Committee Chairperson Veena Virmani said.
However, Ms. Mukherjee said these plans would have been effective only if they had been set up at the beginning.
“They tried similar things at the Ghazipur landfill but that has not worked out,” she said.
Meanwhile, Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain called a meeting of officials of the municipal corporations, the Environment Department, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the Delhi Fire Service to review preparedness to address fires at landfill sites. In a statement, Mr. Hussain’s office said the Commissioners of the municipal corporations did not attend the meeting.
Minister concerned
The statement said the East Delhi Municipal Corporation officials informed the Minister about measures taken to prevent such incidents at the Ghazipur landfill.
“The Minister noted with concern that similar arrangements are lacking at the other two landfill sites at Bhalswa and Okhla,” the statement read, adding that Mr. Hussain asked the North and South corporations to fence off the sites, prevent entry of ragpickers and post staff for monitoring.
