Keystone
Delhi’s fire brigade teams have finally put out the fire that broke out on Sunday evening, for reasons still unclear, in the Ghazipur landfill, the mountain of waste on the extreme north-eastern outskirts of the Indian capital.
For almost three days the toxic smoke released by the column of flames made the air in the neighborhoods surrounding the site unbreathable, creating serious breathing problems and eye and throat irritation for thousands of people.
Ghazipur, the oldest and largest of the three landfills in Delhi, constitutes a long-standing problem for those who administer the capital: it should have been closed since 2002, but every day new tons of waste are added to the mountain, whose height already reaches 65 meters.
The most recent provision ordering its closure and dismantling was issued by the Green Court in 2019. Without consequences, for now.
Experts define the landfill as a time bomb and a very serious threat to the health of those who live in the adjacent areas: in addition to the fumes released by the frequent fires, the toxic sewage from the decomposition of the waste has irreversibly impregnated the surrounding land and poisoned the water used every day by thousands of people.
SDA
