Express Series Part 3 | Capital Collapse: Why ‘garbage-free’ Delhi remains a promise

Eliminating the city’s three notorious trash mountains — the landfill sites, one of which has now become a popular movie and TV series shooting site — was also part of this promise. It was to be cleared by May 2024 but the deadline has now been extended to 2028.

The Swachhta Survekshan rankings released in January 2023 had placed Delhi at 90th out of 446 cities — an improvement from last year’s 157th rank. Hailing this as a sign of progress, Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi had set an ambitious goal of securing the 15th spot within the next two years.

Months have dragged on, but much-needed reforms in the city’s sanitation system seem stuck in a rut.

Missed deadlines

Ahead of the G20 Summit last year, the MCD identified 158 garbage vulnerable points (GVPs) across Delhi’s 12 zones. The plan was simple: clean these locations and replace the piles of refuse with flower pots and street art. The idea was to deter people from using them as informal dumping grounds. So far, execution has been slow and flawed.

The first deadline to put this plan into action passed last August. By October 24, 2023, only half of such points were cleaned. The deadline was then extended till Diwali. On January 9 this year, the MCD said 80% of GVPs were cleaned. In a press statement later in the month, Oberoi claimed all points had been cleared.
However, a spot check by The Indian Express after this found discrepancies between the Mayor’s claims and the actual condition. Retracting her earlier statement, the Mayor said on July 7 that only 28 of the 158 points had been cleaned.

Oberoi had also said waste handling equipment like fixed compactor transfer station machines will be placed at these sites, another promise that is yet to be fulfilled.
“Attempts have been made to routinely clear GVPs and many points are now garbage free but people still treat these spaces as informal dumping grounds… real change can only come if there is a reform in public behaviour,” a senior MCD official said.

Delhi generated just 400 tonne of waste daily, according to data available on the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s website. (Photos: Gajendra Yadav)

The story behind the promise of reducing the height of landfills is not too different, either.

In 2017, a portion of the Ghazipur landfill collapsed, killing two persons. Two years later, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered that all landfill sites be cleared. Then, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and not much was done till late 2022, MCD officials said.

In 2021, the erstwhile North, South and East Delhi bodies set targets for the reduction of legacy waste. The Bhalswa landfill was to be cleared by June 2022, Okhla by December 2023 and Ghazipur by December 2024.

The Ghazipur landfill, Delhi’s first, had 140 lakh tonne of legacy waste, followed by Bhalswa at 80 lakh tonne and Okhla at 60 lakh tonne – a total of 280 tonne.
Last March, then chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the landfill at Okhla could be cleared by December. The deadline for the first two has passed and is close for Ghazipur, unlikely to be met.

According to a report submitted by the MCD to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, as of June 30 this year, of the 280 tonne of garbage at the three sites, over 160 lakh tonne remain. While a little over 50% of the legacy waste (142 lakh tonne) has been bio-mined since October 2019, the report said that around 46 lakh tonne of fresh waste has been dumped since July 2022.

In all, till June this year, 160 lakh tonne of waste was still at the sites. (see box)

According to AAP, the delays are partly due to the absence of the Standing Committee. Without this committee, needed to approve projects costing more than Rs 5 crore, payments to agencies tasked with clearing the landfills have been delayed.

This had also turned into an issue in Delhi’s Central Zone and West Zone, where sanitation work had stopped for a few days after the contract of the concessionaire responsible for garbage collection had expired and a proposal to hire a new one could not be passed due to the absence of the body.

“The agencies had to be convinced to continue their services… The contract of the concessionaries has been extended by two years and dues will be paid once the Standing Committee is constituted… The agencies have, however, said that they will only carry out basic cleaning till the dues are paid and the contract is renewed,” an MCD official said.

The contract of many other concessionaires are also set to expire soon, another MCD official said.

Sources in the office of the Lt-Governor (L-G) agree but lay the blame squarely on AAP. “Work on reducing the height of the landfill actually started taking off after the L-G took over in 2022 and was appointed head of the high-level committee on solid waste by the NGT. Tromelling machines went up from 12 to around 80,” a source said.

In March 2023, the L-G office announced that the height of all three landfills had been reduced by 15 m each. On October 14, the L-G delegated the powers to approve garbage-related contracts exceeding Rs 5 crore to the MCD commissioner to ease the existing crisis.

According to the L-G office, the move was necessary as the MCD has been facing significant difficulties in fulfilling its responsibilities, particularly managing municipal solid waste, due to the absence of the Standing Committee.

The Mayor, in a statement on February 13, also accused waste collection agencies of exacerbating the problem by mixing municipal solid waste with construction and demolition (C&D) debris. This not only complicates landfill remediation efforts but also causes significant economic and environmental losses, as the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs’ 2022 study on municipal waste pointed out.

Being a metropolitan city, the generation of C&D waste in Delhi is much higher in comparison to others. C&D waste has material value, but when dumped at landfills, that value is lost.

Dumping continues

Delhi, home to an estimated 20 million people, produces 11,000 tonne of waste every day. Yet, only 5,280 tonne per day (TDP) is processed, leaving the rest to be dumped at the landfills. This waste problem has grown exponentially in recent decades — in 2000, Delhi generated just 400 tonne of waste daily, according to data available on the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s website.

Among the city’s 12 municipal zones, Shahdara North and South lead in daily waste production, generating 1,250 and 1,200 tonne of garbage, respectively. The Central Zone follows closely with 1,000 tonne. In contrast, the Narela Zone produces the least, with 500 tonne per day. However, there’s a mismatch between the waste generated and the resources deployed to manage it.

The MCD employs nearly 62,000 sanitation workers or safai karamcharis, of which around 34,000 are permanent, while the rest are hired on temporary contracts. Despite years of service, many contractual workers have yet to be granted permanent jobs, leaving them without job security or benefits.

“Some of these workers have been on the job for 25 to 30 years, still they have not been made permanent. They aren’t provided with proper equipment, often forced to buy their own, and salaries are delayed,” said Sanjay Gehlot, Chairman of the Delhi Commission for Safai Karamcharis. Gehlot added that many workers are exposed to hazardous toxins but receive no medical benefits, a demand they have raised repeatedly.

These labour issues, too, directly impact efficiency of waste management in the city.