How many times have you seen people collecting and sorting garbage in the capital city? Have you ever guessed why they do that? Or how much do they earn for that? Or why are they letting their health get affected for such an informal job? And most importantly, why is it the only way for them to earn?
WHAT IS THE GHAZIPUR LANDFILL AND WHO DOES IT AFFECT ?
The Ghazipur landfill in east Delhi began in 1984, and since then it has been used as a bottomless trash can, thereby making it one of Asia’s oldest functional landfills. As per the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, the average span of the landfill should be 20-25 years, but, this oldest landfill is more than 33 years old. What’s more, the landfill overshot its limit of 15 feet way back in 2002. Fifteen years later, it was still in operation with the lack of alternative sites.
Just a few kilometers from the attractive Akshardham temple, where Indian and foreign tourists flock to see the structure’s red sandstone and marble work, the 29-hectare, slum- surrounded Ghazipur landfill in east Delhi seems a world apart. In a socially constructed hierarchy of who gets to smell the pungent smell, it is observed that builders and corporations choose to stay away from the landfill. The only people who can afford to live in buildings constructed by private builders are an exponential percentage of communities with solidified social capitals i.e. upper-caste and upper-class communities.
The overflowing Ghazipur Landfill affects the lives of more than 30 lakh people living within a 10 km area of the landfill and the nearest residential settlement is just 200 meters away. The landfill is polluting the local air, groundwater, and poses a serious threat to Sanjay Lake, which is around 2.5 km away, and the already dying Yamuna River, which is around 7 km away. Parveena, a domestic helper and a resident of Khoda village near the landfill suffer from coughing bouts at irregular intervals. She generally complains about the bad smell and air which disturbs her. However, with her monthly earnings seeing a doctor seems like an impossible task.
HOW DOES THE LANDFILL AFFECT PEOPLE ?
The degradation of wastes in the landfill results in the production and uncontrolled release of leachate and gases. Socio-economic effects of landfills involve risks for public health extracted from surface or groundwater contamination by leachate, the dissolution of litter into the broader environment, and inadequate on-site recycling activities.
With the start of incineration and the pre-planned closure of the Ghazipur landfill, thousands of ragpickers in East Delhi risk losing their livelihood. Measures to deal with toxic contamination and support informal recycling have so far been wasteful. Swati Singh Sambayal, program manager at the Centre for Science and Environment, described the Ghazipur landfill as “a ticking time bomb”. “It’s full of methane, leading to fires. Methane is also one of the potent greenhouse gases that leads to global warming.”
The only relief from the ever-growing garbage — which killed two people in 2017 when a part of the dump collapsed — is the waste-to-energy plant set up next to the landfill. Even this, however, reuses only a small fraction of the dump’s resources. If we look at it logically, this does not compensate for the harmful existence of this landfill.
“About 1,500 metric tonnes of the incoming waste goes to the plant per day. But only combustible waste is used, so the 700 metric tonnes which can’t be used goes back to the landfill,” said the chief engineer. “Even though the energy plant creates electricity, we don’t get any of it,” said a shopkeeper in Ghazipur village.“During election time, many visits were made here by the MCD men. They disinfected the water by putting mosquito repellent in it. But they hardly came before that.” The land upon which Ghazipur sits is heavily contaminated. A thick, black poisonous stream of water pours out from under it and runs along the gutter that lines the dump yard. The total dissolved solids in this water range between 2,825 ppm (parts per million) to 3,300 ppm — far above the 3-5ppm range for potable water.
The dump is the last port of call for Delhi’s trash, having already been picked through by other waste collectors who collect bags of garbage directly from homes. The Indian capital is home to three landfills where around 6,000 tons of rubbish is dumped daily. The landfills produce significant amounts of methane gas and a black toxic liquid called leachate. Spontaneous combustion causes noxious fumes.
Studies have shown that living near a landfill increases the risk of cancer, birth defects, and asthma. A doctor working in a slum that’s home to hundreds of waste collectors said he usually referred at least five people to a nearby hospital every week. Packs of dogs toil around on top of the garbage mountain, hundreds of birds buzz overhead, and cows and buffaloes wander around as the family combs the site. Children are officially banned from working there, but officials turn a blind eye. The toxic landscape takes a huge toll. Children who accompany their parents to the Ghazipur landfill face numerous health concerns at a very young age.
DOES CASTE PLAY A ROLE IN THIS PROBLEM ?
An easy answer to this question might be a definitive yes. If the statistics are looked at then you can observe that an entire community of manual scavengers, domestic helpers, ragpickers, and people with lower incomes. Indian history accounts for a caste system that pushed a certain section of society towards jobs that involve cleaning and the caste system created strict laws which made it difficult for people to pick up other occupations.
Waste workers play an imperative role in keeping Delhi clean and save the city government a significant amount of money every day. Without them, rubbish would not be collected, sorted, or recycled. However, they remain a marginalized section of society. The Mukherjee’s are upper-caste Hindus but most of the others belong to religious minorities or lower Hindu castes. Government benefits fail to reach them.
Still, the landfill offers families like this a steady source of income, and without it, they wouldn’t survive. Recently, city authorities outlined plans to build a plant near the landfill to process waste into energy. Extraordinarily, the Indian government has no large-scale system of garbage removal and recycling and it is undertaken mainly by the informal sector. Even street bins are a rare sight in the Indian capital.
There is a myriad of social implications to living near this landfill. If you are in the lower strata of the caste hierarchy, you are anyway affected and never compensated for the wrongs of historical oppression. The toxic air of the landfill might just be symbolic of the suffocation of a socio-capitalistic system that benefits from a section of society being confined to such occupations and living spaces.
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Written by, Aamna Siddiqui
It’s hard to come by experienced people about this topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
Yes, it is an appalling situation and we do try and help them out by collaborating with them on our Gratitude Candle, do check it out.