Ghazipur garbage pile increases to 65m; only 8m short of Qutub Minar

GHAZIABAD: Ghazipur, a 29-acre garbage dump on the fringes of Ghaziabad commissioned in 1985 for dumping daily solid waste from New Delhi has not only started affecting the health conditions of residents of Ghaziabad villages in the vicinity, the pile itself has grown exponentially this year by meters from 60m in 2017 to 65m this year.
The increase in the height of the pile has been reveled in a report by the parliamentary standing committee on science & technology, Environment and forests and has angered environmentalists who claim that the pile should have effectively reduced over years and not increased.Apparently, the pile could now be just 8 meters short in height than the Qutub Minar, the tallest monument in New Delhi which is 73-meters-high.
The Ghazipur solid waste dump yard has been prone to fire flare ups and occasional cave-ins of the pile has been reported as well. According to the environmentalists, the pile up has been directly affecting the health and environmental conditions of Ghaziabad villages within 2 kilometers of the pile, namely Khoda, Kaushambi, Gharoli, Kondli, Kalyanpur and Ghazipur.
Commenting on the increase in the height of the dump-yard, Anumita Roy Chowdhury, an expert on solid waste at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) stated that the pile up is now turning extremely toxic for both reasons of air quality as well as for allied environment hazards. The Ghazipur pile up is known for frequent flare ups because of random fire caused by release of methane.
“It is high time garbage dumping stopped at Ghazipur. The government should implement the decentralized solid waste management solutions that have been introduced in the Solid Waste Management by laws. The Ghazipur dump yard has impact on the air quality of the region as well as is the cause of an overall environmental degradation of the area,” Roy Chowdhury added.
The unsegregated pile at Ghazipur is largely solid waste collected from all over Delhi is increasing by 10,000 metric tonnes each day. “The wind direction from the pile affects all villages in Ghaziabad area critically till about 2 kilometers and health studies have shown that it affects the health of these residents. It has far reaching impact as far as 7 kilometers from the spot. The garbage pile up should ideally reduce and not grow. The condensed garbage could be utilized for the purpose of road construction while those parts which have already become manure could be distributed for farming,” Noida based environmentalist, Vikrant Tongad said.