Residents rue living in the shadow of Delhi’s garbage mountain
Alam remembers he had a view of the city from the first floor of his house in east Delhi’s Mullla Colony during his childhood. Now 28, Alam’s house has become a three-storey building. But, now all he could see from his terrace is a huge, dark mountain of waste.
“We shudder at the thought of wind blowing from the side of the landfill. It brings along unbearable stench,” he said.
Like Alam, residents of Gharoli Extension, which runs along Ghazipur landfill, live in fear. “The landfill is getting higher and expanding and inching closer to our colony,” said Mohammad Arif, a resident of Gharoli.
In 2013, residents of Mulla Colony and the nearby Rajbir Colony had protested against the landfill. “In the past five years, the garbage dump has increased drastically. We had staged a march to the MCD office, demanding that dumping on the landfill be stopped immediately,” Arif said.
But, their pleas fell on deaf ears and nothing changed despite the authorities accepting that the dumping of garbage there should have stopped back in 2002.
Saira runs a shop in the area and has been living in Mulla Colony for over two decades. “We have nowhere to go. The stink is unbearable and the gases and smoke from the garbage makes us fall sick. My relative died of cancer three years ago,” she said.
Poisonous gases such as methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, ammonia, carbon monoxide and organic compounds such as benzene and vinyl chloride pollute the land and air used by those living around the 70-acre landfill.
“Despite staying inside, our eyes burn due to the toxic smoke that emanates from the numerous fires that keep erupting at the landfill,” said Bhupender of Rajbir Colony.
Gastric problems are common among the residents of the area and, while the rest of the city enjoys the monsoon rains, these people shut their doors and windows to avoid the stench.
Despite staying inside and keeping our doors and windows shut, our eyes burn due to the toxic smoke that emanates from the numerous fires that keep erupting at the landfill.