Efforts are being made to tackle air pollution in Delhi following revelations of its hazardous nature, but that’s not the only issue that is threatening the city with health problems. Trash is also a disaster in the making for Delhi.
Political parties and local body officials were engaged in a blame game over heaps of garbage in streets of Delhi few months ago. Those are nothing compared to the landfills used to dump garbage in the city which can easily be mistaken for mountains.
As per recent reports, Delhi generates more than 9,000 metric tons of garbage every day. All that is dumped in four landfills spread across an area of 164 acres – twice the size of the Vatican city.
Out of these, three should have been defunct by 2006, but are still operational as they stand at a height of over 25 metres.
The requirement area for dumping garbage is 650 acres at the moment, but that has not been achievable since any initiative for new landfills is met by protests from locals who fear for their health.
More than 20% of methane emissions in India are caused by landfills and most of the recyclable garbage reaches landfills due to absence of an effective mechanism to segregate waste.