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Agence France-Presse

India’s tallest rubbish mountain in New Delhi is on course to rise higher than the Taj Mahal in the next year, becoming a fetid symbol for what the UN considers the world’s most polluted capital.
Hawks and other birds of prey hover around the towering Ghazipur landfill on the eastern fringe of New Delhi, as stray cows, dogs and rats wander at will over the huge expanse of smoking filth.
Taking up the area of more than 40 soccer pitches, Ghazipur rises by nearly 10 metres a year with no end in sight to its foul-smelling growth.
According to East Delhi’s superintendent engineer Arun Kumar, it is already more than 65 metres high.




At its current rate of growth, it will be taller than the iconic Taj in Agra, some 73 metres high, in 2020.
India’s Supreme Court warned last year that red warning lights will soon have to be put on the dump to alert passing jets. It was not meant to be this way.

Ghazipur was opened in 1984 and reached its capacity in 2002 when it should have been closed. But the city’s detritus has kept on arriving each day in hundreds of trucks.
“About 2,000 tonnes of garbage is dumped at Ghazipur each day,” a Delhi municipal official said on condition of anonymity.
In 2018, a section of the hill collapsed in heavy rains killing two people. Dumping was banned after the deaths, but the measure lasted only a few days because authorities could not find an alternative.
Asia’s smog exodus: companies forced to offer ‘pollution premiums’ to recruit top talent
Fires, sparked by methane gas coming from the dump, regularly break out and take days to extinguish.
Shambhavi Shukla, senior researcher at the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi, said methane belching from the rubbish can become even more deadly when mixed with atmosphere.
Leachate, a black toxic liquid, oozes from the dump into a local canal.

“It all needs to be stopped as the continuous dumping has severely polluted the air and groundwater,” said Chitra Mukherjee, head of Chintan, an environment advocacy group.
Residents say the dump often makes breathing virtually impossible.
“The poisonous smell has made our lives hell. People fall ill all the time,” said 45-year-old local resident Puneet Sharma.
Protests do not work and now many people are leaving the district. They say a plant that recycles waste into energy next to the dump increases their misery because the smoke it releases by burning trash is also poisonous.




Local doctor Kumud Gupta said she sees about 70 people, including babies, each day mostly suffering from respiratory and stomach ailments caused by polluted air.
A recent study said the dump was a health risk for people living within five kilometres, including for cancer.
Traffic clogged streets, heavy industry and annual burning of fields in regions around Delhi have already made the Indian capital notorious for its pollution.
A government survey conducted between 2013 and 2017 reported that Delhi saw 981 deaths from acute respiratory infection while more than 1.7 million residents suffered from infections. And India’s garbage mountains will only get bigger in coming years.

Indian cities are among the world’s largest garbage producers, generating 62 million tonnes of waste annually. By 2030, that could rise to 165 million tonnes, according to government figures.
Chitra, of the Chintan group, said waste has become a huge challenge as India’s growing wealth drives consumerism and the production of extra garbage that the country cannot dispose of properly.
When he took power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Operation Clean India under which tens of thousands of public toilets have been built and new waste management rules were introduced in 2016.
But watchdogs, including the Supreme Court, have repeatedly accused Delhi’s warring authorities – the region is controlled by one party while Modi’s right-wing party runs the city authorities – of not taking the waste crisis seriously.


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India

Indian ‘rubbish mountain’ set to rise higher than the Taj Mahal, highlighting country’s pollution woes

A rag picker carries a sack of sorted recyclable materials atop the Ghazipur landfill site in the east of New Delhi. Photo: AFP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on September 1, 2017, people stand atop a garbage landfill after a section collapsed in Ghazipur area in India's capital New Delhi. - India's tallest rubbish mountain in New Delhi is on course to rise higher than the Taj Mahal in the next year, becoming a fetid symbol for what the UN considers the world's most polluted capital. (Photo by Prakash SINGH / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on April 14, 2018, Indian rag pickers carry sacks of sorted recyclable materials at the Ghazipur landfill site in the east of New Delhi. - India's tallest rubbish mountain in New Delhi is on course to rise higher than the Taj Mahal in the next year, becoming a fetid symbol for what the UN considers the world's most polluted capital. (Photo by XAVIER GALIANA / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 13, 2018, Indian residents walk near the Ghazipur landfill site in New Delhi. - India's tallest rubbish mountain in New Delhi is on course to rise higher than the Taj Mahal in the next year, becoming a fetid symbol for what the UN considers the world's most polluted capital. (Photo by Money SHARMA / AFP)

Indonesians living near Jakarta’s giant dump want more compensation to put up with notorious smell

Scavengers sorting through a pile of waste at a dump area of Bantar Gebang. Photo: AFP

JAK03:JAKARTA,4AUG98 - Indonesian scavangers collect used goods, including plastics, at Jakarta's main garbage dump at Bantar Gebang August 3. The government's statistics bureau has predicted that almost half of the nation's more than 200 million people would be below the poverty line before the end of the year. The World Bank estimates it would take at least until 2005 before the per capita income recovers to its pre-crisis level. en/Photo by Supri REUTER

FOR USE WITH "HARD JAKARTA"--Ten-year-old Maman, stops to adjust his rubber boot, Jan. 24, 1999, as he works scavenging in the Bantar Gebang dump, east of Jakarta, Indonesia. As the economic crisis continues in Indonesia more children are finding themselves trying to earn money rather than going to school. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)

Diwali firecrackers send air pollution levels in New Delhi soaring as attempts to reduce smog fizzle

Indian children light firecrackers during Diwali celebrations. Photo: AFP

A man cycles near the Indian President's house amid heavy smog in New Delhi on November 8, 2018. - Air pollution in New Delhi hit hazardous levels on November 8 after a night of free-for-all Diwali fireworks, despite Supreme Court efforts to curb partying that fuels the Indian capital's toxic smog problem. (Photo by Money SHARMA / AFP)

Motorists are seen along a busy road amid heavy smog in New Delhi on November 8, 2018. - Air pollution in New Delhi hit hazardous levels on November 8 after a night of free-for-all Diwali fireworks, despite Supreme Court efforts to curb partying that fuels the Indian capital's toxic smog problem. (Photo by Prakash SINGH / AFP)

Air pollution causes seven million premature deaths each year, World Health Organisation data shows

According to WHO data, more than nine out of 10 people on the planet breath dangerously toxic air, causing some seven million premature deaths each year. Photo: Nora Tam

FE4FRA Poorly white teenage boy suffering a dangerous asthma attack taking breaths through a spacer and his inhaler to get ventolin to help him breath

D261BG Sick children in Beijing Children's Hospital. Local residents face a fifth day of heavy smog in Beijing. 14-Jan-2013

B3HP9P Child boy digging sand on Hoeak van Holland beach with chimney pouring plume smoke in background at Europoort port, Netherlands. Image shot 08/2008. Exact date unknown.

This photo taken on June 20, 2013 shows a pregnant woman with a face mask walking on the street in Singapore. Singapore's smog index hit the critical 400 level on June 21, making it potentially life-threatening to the ill and elderly people, according to a government monitoring site. AFP PHOTO/Roslan Rahman (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a press conference after a meeting to decide whether DR Congo's Ebola epidemic is a "public health emergency of international concern." (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

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Asia

South Asia

Ghazipur was opened in 1984 and reached its capacity in 2002 – but New Delhi’s detritus has kept on arriving each day in hundreds of trucks
At its current rate of growth, the landfill will be taller than the iconic Taj in Agra in 2020


Taking up the area of more than 40 soccer pitches, the Ghazipur landfill in eastern New Delhi rises by nearly 10 metres a year – with no end in sight to its foul-smelling growth.


Environment