New Delhi – Wednesday is the second day after heavy smoke erupted in New Delhi after a large landfill caught fire during a scorching heat wave, forcing informal waste workers to endure dangerous conditions.
The North Delhi Bhalswa landfill is taller than a 17-story building and contains more than 50 football fields. Waste workers living in nearby homes were evacuated from the streets on Tuesday evening. But on Wednesday morning, the thousands of people living and working in the landfill began the dangerous process of saving the waste from the fire.
“There are fires every year. Not new. There is a risk to life and livelihood, but what can we do? He asked Bhairo Raj, 31, an unofficial waste worker who lives next to the landfill. He said the children were studying there and couldn’t go there.
The Indian capital, like the rest of South Asia, is in the midst of a record heat wave that experts say was the catalyst for landfill fires. Three other landfills around the Indian capital have also caught fire in recent weeks.
The landfill was scheduled to close more than a decade ago at the time of the last fire, but more than 2,300 tons of waste are dumped here every day. Organic waste is discharged into landfills, resulting in the production of highly flammable methane gas.
“At high temperatures, this spontaneous combustion will occur,” said Ravi Agarwal, director of Toxics Link, a New Delhi-based defense group focused on waste management.
On Tuesday, several fire engines arrived at the landfill to try to put out the fire. At night the landfill looked like a mountain on fire and in the morning it melted.
March was India’s hottest month in over a century and April was just as hot. Temperatures in several cities surpassed 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 F) on Tuesday and are expected to rise.
“India’s current temperature has been exacerbated by climate change,” said Dr Frederick Otto, full professor of climate science at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute.
Such heat waves will become more frequent if the Earth does not stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
___
AP reporter Rishi Lehi contributed to this report.
___
The Associated Press Department of Health and Science is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. Only AP is responsible for all content.
Link to the source
Source: Washington Post
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
