NEW DELHI: A court-appointed inspection report submitted to the National Green Tribunal has laid bare the environmental disaster festering at Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill, exposing glaring lapses in solid waste management. The inspection revealed a mountain of untreated waste far exceeding the permitted height, uncontrollable methane emissions, toxic leachate oozing into drains and making its way to the Yamuna River, and a complete absence of boundary walls, raising severe health, environmental, and safety concerns.
The findings were submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which has taken suo motu cognisance of the worsening situation at the site. A bench comprising NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, Judicial Member Justice Sudhir Agarwal, and Expert Member A. Senthil Vel has directed the MCD to submit a detailed affidavit within six weeks. The court has demanded clarity on the lapses in waste treatment, fire control, leachate management, and plans for long-term site remediation. While the MCD submitted a reply dated July 9, the bench found it lacking and raised several follow-up queries.
“A perusal of the above reply reveals that though the dump site Ghazipur receives the waste in the range of 2400–2600 MT per day, it is presently processing much lesser quantity, therefore, the untreated waste is adding to the legacy waste. The WTE plant in Ghazipur is presently utilising only approximately 700-1000 MT of waste daily. The waste, which was going to the WTE Plant at Okhla till April 2025, has stopped. The gap in the receipt and treatment of the solid waste is reflected, yet without disclosing the details of filling this gap and the steps that will be taken to clear the legacy waste, the targeted timeline for complete clearance is stated to be 2028,” the bench observed.