Page 35 - 30NOV2019E

PhotoFeature photo feature

Who makes • Breathing gets tough Waste
dumps often make breathing
virtually impossible

the national The national capital, where Swachchh • Ban fails A ban on

dumping waste was
imposed in 2017 but it
capital dirty? Bharat Abhiyan saw the light of day, houses could last only a few days
some of the most overly saturated, stinking,
simmering landfills, reports tehelka bureau
& photographs by prakhar pandey

espite it being the national capital, Delhi
is one of the filthiest cities in the coun- • Not so clean The
try. The biggest problem is the amount country generates more
of garbage that it generates on a daily than 60 million tonnes of
D basis. There are some landfill sites that garbage every year
have taken the shape of a mountain; so much of gar-
bage has been dumped there and the process is on.
The solid waste situation in the capital has swiftly
moved from being a non-issue to a crisis. The capital
• Dumping ground Unplanned generates more than 9,000 tonnes of waste every-
use of landfill sites remains one day. The figure is not an astounding one for a metro-
of the key areas of concern. politan city, but the bone of contention is the treat-
ment of this waste.
Interestingly, 60 per cent of the total waste is
organic — which essentially means that it can be
treated at home. The problem, as per the experts, is
when the waste reaches the landfills. Delhi has three
• Processing loopholes In India, less than such sites, now turned into man-made mountains
60% of waste is collected from households of garbage. Bhalswa landfill site in North Delhi is
and only 15% of urban waste is processed the newest addition to the city’s garbage dumps. In
operation since 2011, the site was added to two
others that long ago reached full capacity — Ghaz-
ipur in the East and Bawana in Outer Delhi.
There are three factors that are making the Delhi
garbage story more filthy. The first is ignorance —
both at the end of the people and administration.
Second is space issue and third is the ever-growing
population. The 24 million residents in the capital
produce 65 per cent of the waste.
The onus of Delhi heading for a waste crisis lies
on the key stakeholders of the city. The lax attitude
of the Centre and state governments, bureaucracy
and the general pubiic. Every one has to do his bit to
make and keep the national capital clean.

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