A fire that has raged on at Bellahalli quarry for over four days has had a cascading effect: garbage collection has been affected in the city.
In Chennammanakere Achukattu, garbage collection has been halted for two days, while in Malleshpalya, garbage collection autorickshaws came on Sunday after nearly a week. Residents of Malleswaram complained of piling garbage in bins kept at 8th Cross, while in Jayanagar 7th and 8th Blocks, residents have complained to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike that garbage has now overrun their footpaths.
The genesis of the city-wide problem is a fire at Bellahalli that started in the mixed waste sometime on Wednesday. Each day, over 320 loads of garbage is dumped in the quarry, but because of the fire, dumping was stopped, resulting in a line of vehicles stranded at the site. Nearly 75% of the city’s garbage ends up in the quarry.
“The major fire has been doused, but there is still embers in 20% of the Bellahalli area. We have been able to offload around 150 to 200 trucks a day now, and it will take 48 hours to restore normalcy here,” said D. Randeep, Special Commissioner (Solid Waste Management), BBMP.
Mixed waste to blame
With temperatures soaring, the mixed waste at the city’s largest operational landfill is a tinderbox. Mixed waste being dumped there has added to the risk of fires, said Mr. Randeep.
While unrecycled plastic provide flammable material, decomposing organic waste and dried leaves generate methane which act as fuel to spread the fire. “The nature of the waste has made preventing fires here difficult. We have Fire Department personnel there, but preventing a fire over such a huge area with large amounts of combustible material is difficult,” he said.
In April 2018, a large blaze at Bellahalli had brought garbage collection in the city to a grinding halt.
For nearly a week, N.S. Ramakanth, member, Solid Waste Management Expert Committee, has been receiving complaints about irregular garbage collection on ward-level social media groups. “While garbage collection is one part of the problem, Bengalureans should also take responsibility for the frequent fires at Bellahalli. Barely four in 10 citizens segregate waste, and unsegregated waste continues to flow into the quarry,” he said.
