Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to the “severe” category on Wednesday due to slow winds after 10 days, Government agencies said. Stubble burning accounted for two per cent of Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, political blame game started after a fire broke out at Ghazipur landfill in East Delhi. The fire started early morning and the landfill site smouldered throughout the day with firefighters putting up massive efforts to douse it.
As the national Capital’s overall air quality deteriorated, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) mobile app, SAMEER, said the city’s air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 401.
It forecasted winds to pick up and improve the ventilation condition by Thursday.
“The AQI is forecasted to improve towards ‘very poor’ category by tomorrow and likely stay in the lower end of Very Poor on November 27 and 28,” SAFAR said.
Stubble burning accounted for five per cent of Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution on Tuesday, six per cent on Monday and 12 per cent on Sunday. It was 13 per cent on Saturday, 15 per cent on Friday and 20 per cent on Thursday.
The maximum and minimum temperatures in the city on Wednesday settled at 24.4 degrees Celsius and 10.4 degrees Celsius with cloudy sky.
Regarding the Ghazipur landfill, Atul Garg, Director, Delhi Fire Services (DFS), said the call regarding fire was received around 9.56 pm on Tuesday following which five fire tenders were rushed to the spot.
“Later, three more fire engines were dispatched to douse the fire. The fire was at different places at the landfill. The operation is still going on,” said Garg.
Another official said the cause of fire at different locations might be due to the garbage collectors who dumped garbage here and set it on fire. “DFS had informed this practice of garbage collectors to authorities several times but the garbage collectors keep on repeating the same putting lives of nearby residents at risk and causing pollution levels to spike in the city,” he said.
However, AAP leader Durgesh Pathak claimed that BJP leaders have set a fire in the Ghazipur landfill site to defame the Arvind Kejriwal Government, a charge denied by the BJP which said only AAP leaders can think of such allegations because they themselves might be doing such acts.
“The garbage fire was not spontaneous but the BJP leaders have planned this. In the last 15 years, the BJP-ruled MCD has gifted three huge garbage mountains to Delhi. They have erected three big garbage mountains in Delhi. Due to the fire in this mountain, Delhi people are facing difficulty in breathing. This is only the result of corruption, incompetence and failure of BJP,” he said.
Responding to the charges, BJP Delhi unit president Adesh Gupta said Gautam Gambhir has been working to reduce the height of the landfill site for the last one year and a half. “The fire was planned by the AAP and put the lives of people in danger. In the last six years, Kejriwal has not visited the site. The party has been doing politics over all the issue to hide its failure,” he said.
A senior EDMC official said the fire erupted early in the morning and spread over a large area. “There may be several reasons for fire at the landfill site. Landfill fires are caused by wet waste rotting and decomposing material such as plastic and other materials, leading to methane formation, which is a greenhouse gas and flammable and often leads to fires,” he said.