After Ghazipur blaze: Why landfill fires are easy to ignite and difficult to put out, explained

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Why do landfills burn repeatedly?

The Ghazipur dumpsite, which covers around 70 acres in East Delhi, is not a scientifically planned sanitary landfill. The Solid Waste Management Rules issued by the MoEFCC in 2016 state that only non-recyclable, non-biodegradable and non-combustible waste should go to a sanitary landfill.

“These landfill sites are not scientifically designed. We are not segregating the waste and these landfills receive mixed waste, including organic waste as well as ignitable material and plastics,” said Richa Singh, programme officer, Waste Management Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment.

The biodegradable or food waste decomposes over time. The anaerobic decomposition (breakdown of organic waste in the absence of oxygen) of organic waste generates methane gas and heat.

“Methane is present in air only in traces. But at dumpsites, methane can range between 3.5% and 13%. If there is anything combustible at the dumpsite, it can catch fire quickly. Natural fires are very common at dumpsites,” Singh said.

At sanitary landfills, waste should be compacted and a thick soil cover should be placed over it. “Soil acts as a fire suppressant and restricts the passage of oxygen that is required for combustion,” Singh said.

“At Ghazipur, since there is legacy waste from many years, there is a lot of formation of methane and the temperatures are very high. This can lead to fires,” said a senior EDMC official.

A bird flies past an earthmover as smoke rises from fire at the Ghazipur garbage dump in New Delhi, India, Monday, March 28, 2022. (Photo: AP)

Why is it difficult to douse fires that break out at landfills?

Scientifically designed landfills are expected to have leachate collection systems and gas collection systems, while the waste is to be compacted properly and pathways are to be provided through the dumpsite. At uncontrolled landfills, access can be difficult.

“A lot of methane is already trapped at the dumpsite. Using water to douse fires at these sites means that it will generate leachate and heat. The best fire suppressant is soil or construction debris. Wind speed can also hinder attempts to douse it,” Singh said.

How much waste is generated and treated?

According to a progress report for January submitted by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, the city generates around 11,119 TPD (tonnes per day) of municipal solid waste. The total capacity of existing municipal solid waste processing facilities is only 5530 TPD, around 49.7% of the total generation. This existing capacity is also underutilised – only around 4,646 TPD of waste was being processed in January, mostly at the city’s waste-to-energy (WTE) plants. Small quantities are also being treated at compost plants and bio-methanation plants.

The EDMC area, comprising 64 wards, generates 2,700 TPD of municipal solid waste, of which only 0.6% or 15 TPD was being processed in January, since work was under way at the 1,300-TPD waste-to-energy plant at Ghazipur. The reports from August, September and October last year state that only around 600 TPD of waste was being processed at the Ghazipur WTE plant. The plant is still being renovated, the EDMC official said.

Consequently, around 2,685 TPD was being disposed at the landfill at Ghazipur in January. While 100% of the waste is being collected, as per the DPCC report, only 50% was being segregated in 61 wards, and 80% to 100% was being segregated in the remaining three wards.

The EDMC had proposed to set up a 2,000-TPD solid waste processing plant at Ghonda Gujran – a proposal that was recently rejected since the site was on the floodplains of the Yamuna. The EDMC has placed a request with the Delhi Development Authority for an alternative site.

On the orders of the NGT, biomining of waste is to be undertaken at the three non-engineered landfills at Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla. The action plan submitted by the EDMC to the NGT set December 2024 as the deadline to remediate all of the waste lying at the landfill.

Of the 140 lakh tonnes of legacy (or old) waste dumped at the site in 2019, 8.74 lakh tonnes or only 6.4% of the total was processed by Jan 31 this year. And, the landfill receives more waste every day.

As per a 2019 assessment, the Ghazipur landfill had the highest quantity of legacy waste – 140 lakh tonnes – as opposed to the Okhla landfill which had 60 lakh tonnes, and the Bhalswa landfill that had 80 lakh tonnes.

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