Skip to main content

Occupational hazard? 88.3% waste pickers aren't equipped to deal with landfill burns

Bhalaswa landfill site
By Our Representative 
The extreme rise in heat in the National Capital has led to yet another climate induced disaster. This time it was the Bhalaswa landfill. A massive fire broke out on April 26, 2022 afternoon between 1 and 2 pm. Yet this was not an isolated incident. This was the 4th major fire in Delhi-NCR. According to data by Delhi Fire Service, there have been four fire incidents in Ghazipur, three in Bhalaswa and two in Okhla this year.
Consequences on waste pickers of such disasters haven’t yet been gauged. In December 2021, Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group conducted a survey on climate induced disasters with the waste picker communities. As many as 80.9% waste pickers said that they faced occupational hazard during landfill fires as well as health issues.
A media monitoring exercise by Chintan, known to be an elite non-profit NGO, claiming to work in the field of sustainability and environmental justice for the past 20 years, indicated landfill fires to be a regular disaster: 80% waste pickers stated it to be the most commonly occurring disaster.
The Chintan study says, as summer arrives with great intensity, higher temperatures cause organic matter present in the waste to decompose more rapidly, thereby emitting greater quantities of methane. 
Apart from putting landfill workers and those residing around it at direct risk of losing life, income and property, such waste-dump fires, also worsens Delhi’s air quality. The smog and toxic fumes have both short-term and long-term impacts on the respiratory system and has carcinogenic elements.
Fires at landfill sites reported by waste pickers
The respondents from the Chintan survey reported that toxic fumes lead to difficulty in breathing. Emissions from the landfill not only pose a threat to the health of those who live and work around the landfill but are a huge contributor to climate change.
According to the “Chintan Report on Disasters Faced by Waste Pickers, 2021”, an actionable solution is diverting wastes from landfills and reducing the dump. Segregation of waste is key to achieving this. Organic waste can be segregated from dry waste and composted. Not only will this reduce the waste going to landfill, it will also be a driving source of manure to nourish plants and crops.
Balmukund Kumar, coordinator of the Safai Sena, a waste-pickers' collective in Delhi, says, “Six jhuggis (informal settlements) of waste pickers along with their collected recyclable materials, ration, clothes, and other household materials have become ashes. Only documents could be saved. Waste-pickers who work at the landfill have lost a month's worth of segregated recyclables.”
Adds Kumar, “More than 170 waste-picker families have suffered a loss of income. One woman waste picker got minor injuries last night while trying to save her segregated waste. The fire was still rampant on Wednesday morning, and families living at the base of the landfill in kachha jhuggies (informal settlements) are at the risk of catching fire. People are scared and are splashing water since Tuesday night to save their homes..”
Workers equipped to deal with landfill fires
Believes Shruti Sinha, manager, Policy and Outreach, Chintan, which won the US Innovation Award by the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, the United Nations Climate Solutions Award in 2015, and the FICCI Women Icon Award by the President of India in 2018, “This is climate change and its only going to get worse. And who gets impacted the most? Waste pickers working on the landfill. Children living the informal settlements around the landfill. Women on whom the burden of injury, loss of home and incomes fall.”
She adds, “These are frontline communities. We are experiencing one of the hottest summers in Delhi. When heat and heaps of mixed wastes come together- such a disaster become common. Solution? Segregate waste, compost your wet waste and divert wastes from landfills.”
Sinha further states, “Landfill fires aren’t the only disaster. Parts of landfill also collapse regularly. Chintan survey reports that 56.4% waste pickers have been impacted by such collapses. Do they feel equipped to deal with such disasters? 88.3% of them report that they feel in-equipped to deal with such occurrences. So, segregation is key, and so is disaster management training for at risk workers apart from responsive policy measures that can prevent such disaster from occurring and reducing its impact”.

Comments

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Invincible, Modi 'taller' than BJP, RSS: An opportunity for Congress beyond 2024?

By NS Venkataraman*  With the announcement of poll schedule for the 2024 parliamentary election, there is palpable excitement and expectation amongst the countrymen  about the shape of things to happen in India after the  results of the election would be announced. There is also speculation abroad about the future course of developments in India.