Delhi: Just putting a stop to waste burning can improve city air by 10%

New Delhi: Just controlling the burning of garbage in the open can reduce pollutants in Delhi’s air by up to 10%. A low hanging fruit, and yet nothing much is being done in this direction. Along with municipal waste being incinerated, the winter months also see burning of plastics and tyres for warmth on the streets, a fact indicated by the presence of chlorides in the air. In October alone, Delhi Fire Services received 751 calls related to garbage burning, a third of all fire calls made to the firemen.

The three municipal corporations are aware of the problem. In a 10-day period between October 17 and 27, the civic bodies detected more than 280 cases of garbage burning and booked the accused, at the same time hauling up 1,035 people for illegal dumping of garbage and plastic waste. There are 102 teams — 48 of the north corporation, 26 of SDMC and 28 of EDMC — on day and night patrolling and inspection to check these civic misdemeanours. According to local data, these teams visited over 1,800 sites in the 10 days.

Some research has established that Delhi burns 2-3% of the municipal solid waste (MSW) it generates every day. An IIT Kanpur study of the city’s air quality in 2016 also contended that MSW burning contributed nearly 10% to the PM10 and PM2.5 loads in Delhi’s ambient air during winters. The emissions from garbage burning were estimated by the researchers at 2,000 kg/day of PM10 and 1,800 kg/day of PM2.5.

The IIT study said, “Any form of garbage burning should be strictly stopped and monitored for compliance. It will require development of infrastructure, including access to remote and congested areas, for effective collection of MSW and disposal at landfill sites.” It also noted that effective control on this front could bring the emissions from this source to zero, leading to an improvement of 5-10% in air quality.

A municipal official involved with waste management said that the garbage collection mechanism has improved vastly in the last four years. “While mechanised interventions like compactors have been introduced, most municipal zones now also either have private concessionaries carrying out door-to-door garbage collection or are in process of deploying one for the job,” the official said. The unauthorised colonies and outer Delhi remain troublesome, however, as far daily garbage collection is concerned. Municipal councillors from outer Delhi areas such as Narela, Rohini and Najafgarh have repeatedly raised the issue of irregular waste collection in their wards during corporation meetings.

The burden is now increasingly shared by Delhi Fire Services. Besides spraying water in the 13 pollution hotspots identified by the government, waste fires are also important assignments. Atul Garg, director, Delhi Fire Services, told TOI, “Earlier, calls about garbage fire were low priority because they did not involve loss of life or property. But the situation is different now. All calls about waste burning are high priority and attended to immediately to prevent smoke and pollution.”

The fire chief said vigilant citizens inform the department. “On average, we receive 50 calls about garbage burning, for which we usually deploy three fire tenders,” Garg said. Most such calls originate from areas such as Pitampura, Jwala Heri, GT Karnal Road, Rohini and Wazirpur.

Fire officials revealed that more than a third of the personnel are involved in the water sprinkling duties and to douse garbage calls. A special team under S K Tomar, deputy chief fire officer, attends to calls about waste incineration round-the-clock. Garg added, “We also tell the firemen to inform local residents not to burn waste in the open as they add to pollution.”