After fire, more teams to monitor Ghazipur landfill
NEWDELHI: After a fire broke out at a portion of Ghazipur landfill on Saturday evening, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has decided to increase the surveillance at the dumping ground to avert fire incidents in the future.
Fire officials said that the blaze was a result of methane gas deposits. “We received the call from Police Control Room at 7.50pm and eight fire tenders were pressed into service to control the flames. In addition, debris was dumped at the site to douse the fire,” said fire official.
Also, a fresh blaze was reported from the landfill on Sunday morning . This, however, was controlled within 30 minutes by one fire tender, which was on standby.
An EDMC official said that three teams had already formed to keep a watch in the area, but after the incident, additional workforce will be made available to ensure entire complex, spreading over an area of 70 acres, is monitored thoroughly.
“The portion which caught fire on Saturday was located at the backside of landfill and 30 metres above the ground level. It was not in use for 15 years, that why the staff could not spot the fire,” said the official, who is not authorised to be quoted.
Chitra Mukherjee, member, Chintan NGO, however, blamed the civic agency, saying that nothing had been done to prevent the problem in last many years. “We are already dealing with issue of global warming and now these landfills, where non-segregated waste is dumped, have become regular source of nuisance.”
The site is located close to the spot which collapsed on September 1. Despite the incident which resulted in death of two people, dumping continues at Ghazipur as the civic agency has no alternative place.
“We have been drawing the state government’s attention to the over saturated site since 2000. We have no space and thus dumping is still done here. We can’t assure that such incidents won’t happen in future as methane is deposited at various places and as soon as it comes in contact with oxygen, fire erupts at the landfill,” said an EDMC official.
However, Ranvir Singh, EDMC commissioner, said that to reduce the quantity of waste they are planning to start bioremediation plant. “We are making long term plans such as bioremediation of fresh as well as old garbage dumped at the site. The process will help in reducing the waste quantity to half,” he said.