Fire at Bhagtanwala garbage dump in Amritsar leaves residents choked

Amritsar, May 2

A massive fire broke out at the garbage dump in Bhagtanwala area here on Wednesday evening. Dense smoke and ash spread in the surrounding areas as garbage was reportedly burning till late in the evening.

According to the information, the fire broke out around 11 am at one of the garbage heaps at the dump and on being informed, a Fire Brigade vehicle reached to control the fire. The flames were controlled after firefighters’ hard efforts of several hours. However, the smoke and ash continued to spread till late evening.

Owing to the lack of bioremediation at the 30-year-old garbage dumping ground, at present about 18 lakh metric tonnes of garbage is piled up. Despite hiring of a solid waste management firm for bioremediation of garbage by the MC, work in this regard has been stopped for long and garbage is increasing day by day. In the absence of bioremediation processing of legacy waste, fire incidents are a routine affair in summer.

MC officials claimed that garbage has been lying in the dumping ground for several years and it produces methane gas. With the rise in temperature, gas comes in contact with heat triggering a fire. There is a huge amount of flammable material in the heaps of garbage at the dumping ground spreading around 20 acres.

However, residents of nearby localities alleged that the solid waste management company set the garbage on fire to save resources, which are supposed to be used in the processing of garbage.

The residents of nearby residential colonies are facing a lot of problems due to frequent incidents of fire at the dump. Along with the localities around the dump, there is a railway line on one side and the grain market on the other.

Even as the burning of waste at the Bhagtanwala dump has been a nagging issue for residents of nearby localities for long, this harvesting season, farmers coming to the nearby Bhagtanwala grain market too are troubled as ash from the dump flies all over the place.

Farmers complained that they are forced to breathe ash mixed air.

Moreover, a huge quantity of wheat grains is lying in the mandi and in case fire spreads further, one shudders to think what consequences one has to face.

“To prevent frequent fires at the garbage dumps, there is a need to restart bioremediation of garbage heap. The solid waste management company should make arrangements to control such fires. At least one fire tender should permanently be stationed near the dump in summer,” said Sukhdev Singh, a resident of Bhagtanwala.