Delhi govt, experts to chalk out means beyond odd-even to curb pollution in Capital

Despite the odd-even process bringing about a reduction in traffic congestion in the national Capital, its criticism of not making a substantial impact on the pollution levels is making environmentalists and the Delhi government ponder upon and work on other factors contributing to it. 

On Tuesday, during a session hosted by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed his surprise that even though there was fall in consumption of diesel and petrol by 40 per cent, there was no great impact in the air quality.

Besides vehicular pollution, mostly caused by diesel, other factors responsible for pollution in Delhi include dust expelled by industries and smoke from burning of wastes. Sources in the government and environmentalists admit that even though a lot is being done to curb pollution, burning of solid wastes at the landfill sites still needs to be worked on.

According to the Delhi government’s environment department, about 8,360 metric tonne of waste is generated in Delhi per day, about 80 per cent of which gets deposited at the three landfill sites of Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalaswa. Each site has reached saturation levels due to excess garbage.

The fire raging over Bhalswa landfill site in North-west Delhi for more than a week is causing massive inconvenience to residents. Pushpa, a local activist said: “This landfill site generates about 2,000 tonne of waste each day and in 5 years the mount of garbage has increased in height from 21 m to 41 m, which is affecting the quality of groundwater in the region.” Pushpa also claims that the plan to convert some part of the region into a park is on since five years.

Commenting on the pollution caused by the fire, Anumita Roychowdhury of CSE said: “The waste at the landfill sites produce methane which has combustible qualities and can thereby catch fire at high temperatures or even by a slight spark.” She highlighted that the smoke contains carcinogenic gases — like nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide — that can cause severe health ailments and irritation, as was recently witnessed in Deonar, Mumbai.

On the possible solution, Sunita Narain of CSE said: “There must be a NIMBY (not in my backyard) process that needs to be practiced, where the waste from houses should be segregated, recycled, and composed, rather than being handed over to municipal bodies.” 

Narain highlighted that such practices have been followed in Kerala and have been discussed with the Chief Minister. The Delhi government has a functional biomass plant that converts waste to energy, while two other plants are under installation.