Ghazipur fire: Tech used in Mumbai may be deployed in Delhi landfill

Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said teams from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and corporations will travel to Mumbai to check on the working model of this system.

A day after the Ghazipur landfill caught fire for the third time in nearly a month and was doused by firefighters by late Thursday afternoon, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai announced that the government plans to adopt a technology used in Mumbai to remove gas emitted from landfill sites to reduce the risk of frequent fires.

There have been at least three fire incidents at the landfill in the last month, starting from March 28. (Raj K Raj/HT)

“The gas sucking system built at Mumbai’s dumping site was chosen after consultation with experts from all concerned departments... The biggest cause of fire in landfill sites is the continuous release of methane gas, which not only promotes fire incidents but is also harmful to the atmosphere. With the installation of this gas sucking system, emission of methane gas from the waste can be regulated to an extent,” said Rai, after a high-level meeting with different departments on Thursday.

Firefighters said they have already doused the blaze that broke out at Ghazipur landfill by late Thursday afternoon.

The minister said teams from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and corporations will travel to Mumbai to check on the working model of this system. “The departments have also been given orders to conduct regular inspections in order to avoid the outbreak of fires in landfill sites,” he said, adding that the other suggestions included installing gas wells, covering solid waste with around 10cm of soil and sorting waste into six categories.

Firefighters said they have already doused the blaze that broke out at Ghazipur landfill by late Thursday afternoon. (HT Illustration)

The meeting included experts from The Energy and Resources Institue (TERI), Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), IIT Delhi, IGL, GAIL and officials from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), municipal corporations and environment department.

Meanwhile, at the Ghazipur landfill, smoke continued to billow from the garbage mound till Thursday evening, as fire officials said it is expected to be completely controlled by midnight.

“By midnight the fire-fighting operation should be over. Unlike the March 28 fire, when the fire raged for almost three days, this time the fire may last a little more than 24 hours. The cooling operation has started at the site,” said a fire officer at the spot.

East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) mayor Shyam Sunder Aggarwal said that the fire was doused by the fire department in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. “There may be little smoke coming out of the mound but it will also go down naturally. Such landfill fires occur all over the country and they are a normal phenomenon when temperature rises and methane emissions increase,” he said.

There have been at least three fire incidents at the landfill in the last month, starting from March 28.

East MCD hiding corruption: Atishi

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and chairperson of the Delhi assembly’s environment committee Atishi meanwhile on Thursday accused the EDMC of corruption, claiming that the height of the landfill has not reduced despite spending crores of money.

“The BJP-led East MCD has signed various contracts with private companies for waste management and disposal of the Ghazipur landfill, claiming to work towards reducing the height of the hazardous landfill and recycling of waste before its arrival at the landfill through waste-to-energy plants. However, the harsh reality is that every single contract that the BJP has signed in the name of waste management is tainted with corruption, and today it is trying its level best to hide these scams,” said Atishi on Thursday.

She said that the East MCD failed to produce documents around these contracts despite being sought by the environment committee. “So far they have only shared a website link, saying that only the documents available on their website will be shared. They have added that they do not have permission from the East MCD mayor to share the rest of the documents,” said Atishi.

The EDMC mayor however denied the charges and said that if the AAP-led Delhi government had provided adequate funds to the corporations, then the garbage mounds would have been cleared. “We would have been in much more advanced stages in the bio-mining projects,” he said, adding that the Delhi government is not free from corruption.