By Bharati Chaturvedi:
Waste burning has an impact on air pollution. We know that. Studies tell us that. If you need a study, here is just one: Nagpure et al. (2015) in Delhi have estimated 190 to 246 tons/day of MSW is burned daily (about 2-3% of the MSW generated). The estimated emissions are: 2,000 kg/day of PM10 and about 1,800 kg of PM2.5. MSW burning contributes nearly 10% of PM10 and PM2.5 to ambient air in winters.
When Waste Burns, Who Are The Worst Affected?
Intuitively, children, and the elderly. But within them, the poor and those with jobs that keep them outdoors, or with homes that are sub-standard. Security guards and wastepickers stand out.
“They don’t stay indoors, we don’t have computers for them,” laments Farida, waste sorter and mother of a 9-year-old daughter who was recently protesting against inaction on air pollution in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Basti. “I am glad she is standing here and telling the government to do something. What are the poor supposed to do without the government? No matter how hard I work, I can’t give her clear air.”
Farida’s work is to sort trash, so she sits for hours in an aerosol filled space with heaps of waste. The room is located in an area where dust flies around every day from the muddy tracts around. People walk in and out, bring in even more dust. They breathe this, and it is killing them. Not for nothing does the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute warn us about Delhi’s children: half of the 4.4 million children have irreversibly damaged lungs.
No, the mask is not theirs to use. “I can’t keep in on, it suffocates me,” adds another mother, listening to our chat as she watches over her children. Nor air filters. For the people here, an air filter is something the rich use. Her family takes in the air as it is.
For some people, wealthier areas are not safer either. A 2016 Chintan survey in the Vasant Vihar-Vasant Kunj-Munirka areas showed that 87% of the guards burned waste to keep warm during the winter.
This is hardly unusual. An estimation by Chintan in February 2015 showed that nearly two years ago, Delhi’s air could have been poisoned by at least 30,000 small fires every night, from November to February, also the peak air pollution months, by security guards. “It’s just too cold at two in the morning, then the fog is thick and thieves can come in. We need to be awake, but we need to stay alive also,” points out Subhash, a security guard who identified himself by just his first name.
Burning fires add to the air pollution, locally and across the city. It pumps poison into us all. Most of all, it pumps poison into those who seek warmth out of it. Security guards harm themselves the most even while they try to protect us all. Some initiatives offer them thicker coats, and blankets. A few people provide heaters, although many worry about the electricity bills and possible fires. Even if the guards sat in warm kiosks with thick blankets around them, they’d still breathe the poor quality air that envelopes us all. When they go home, they’ll still be in over-crowded rooms thick with bad air.
Farida and Subhash both belong to that part of Delhi that nurtures it – cleans it, protects it, amongst other things. No amount of protective gear will ever save them from being harmed by the air that Delhi- and many other cities in India-have been experiencing in recent months. There is only one solution: cleaning up the air. That way, everyone who lives in these parts can breathe deep and safe.
Bharati Chaturvedi is the Founder-Director of the Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group, an NGO that works for environmental sustainability and social justice in partnership with diverse sections of society.