Fire dept answered 32 calls of garbage burning in 20 days

NEW DELHI: Unchecked garbage burning and fires in open lands is hampering Delhi’s fight against its deteriorating air quality in the winter months. Between October 1 and October 20 this year, Delhi Fire Services (DFS) received 32 calls of fires various parts of the city.

A 2018 source apportionment study by The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) showed that garbage burning contributed to nearly 14% of the PM 10 particulates in the Delhi air, and 22% of PM 2.5.

Senior fire officials said that in the last 20 days, they are dealing with at least one call a day of fire incidents in open lands, landfill fires, and garbage burning instances getting out of control. A fire at the Bhalswa landfill also kept the fire fighters busy for over 24 hours.

In the first 20 days of September, 14 such fires were reported to the fire helpline, while 18 open burning cases was tackled by the firemen in August.

“Most of these complaints have come from the vacant tracts around the banks of the Yamuna, vacant plots around Dwarka and industrial areas in northeast Delhi. People either set garbage on fire or residents from slums come to collect wood and often set fires in the area,” said a senior fire official.

Apart from these, four cases of stubble burning instances were also reported from the rural pockets of southwest and northwest Delhi where there are tracts of farmlands.

“We cannot act on such complaints by ourselves. Unless there is a complaint with either the municipal agencies or the Delhi Pollution Control Board (DPCC), we cannot reach private farm lands based on complaints on our helpline,” the official added.

A primary pollutant in Delhi,

Most complaints have come from the vacant tracts of land around the Yamuna banks, vacant plots around Dwarka and industrial areas.

A SENIOR FIRE OFFICIAL

PM2.5 particles can enter deep into the human respiratory tract, reaching the lungs and cause long term health effects. Health experts have pointed out that inhaling waste burning emissions can trigger asthma, heart attacks, stroke, irregular heart rhythms, and heart failure, especially in people who are already at risk for these conditions.

Experts said that with under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) municipal agencies and pollution monitoring bodies have been tasked with keeping a close watch to control the cases of garbage and leaf burning.

Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy), said that controlling open burning can go a long way in reducing the pollution levels in the city. “This requires intensive local level action from agencies. Since people are now aware of how the pollution in Delhi is affecting their health, reaching out to them with the adverse affects of garbage burning can lead to self disciplining,” Roychowdhury said.

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