Delhi: Fire rages on at Bhalswa landfill site, air quality to worsen

New Delhi, Oct 22: In what would certainly add to Delhi's air quality woes, a fire has been raging at the Bhalswa landfill site in Delhi since October 20.

Delhi's air quality oscillated between "poor" and "very poor" category Sunday as authorities have warned of days of severe pollution ahead.

The fire at Bhalswa landfill site broke out at 2 pm on October 20, a Delhi Fire Service official said, adding firefighting was still going on at the site.

Three fire tenders are working to douse the blaze, he said.

Last year, the National Green Tribunal has rapped the Delhi government for lack of infrastructure to deal with "mountain dumps" of decaying garbage at various landfill sites in the city. The green panel had then noted that Delhi generated nearly 14,100 metric tonnes of garbage per day and the authorities lacked the requisite infrastructure and appropriate technical capacity to deal with such huge amounts of waste. The tribunal also directed the city government to submit a report on the status of cleaning the major drains which join river Yamuna.

In September 2017,Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Saturday banned garbage dumping in Ghazipur with immediate effect.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs