Burning dumpyard fills Surat lockdown air with toxic gas

Surat: With almost negligible vehicular movement during the lockdown, noise pollution as well as vehicular emission has almost become a thing of the past.

However, while the urban spaces were enjoying the sounds of birds chirping in the fresh morning air, pollution once again hit the nostrils — this time with landfills around the diamond city abruptly catching fire from the toxic waste reacting to the atmospheric heat.

For the past two days, the landfill site at Khajod have been emitting toxic gas and fumes. An alert citizen, Sanjeev Kothari, clicked pictures and shared it with members of Project Surat – that works towards environment awareness.

Speaking to the TOI ,environmentalist Akash Bansal said, “Even though construction waste – a major contributor to landfills – has stopped due to lockdown, other combustible commercial as well as solid industrial waste too have been deposited here at alarming levels. These chemicals react with rising temperature outside and begin to smoulder first producing foul toxic gases and smog. These are highly dangerous for the health. ”

Yoga enthusiast and entrepreneur, Nandini Sultania, shared a video of an affected area filled with toxic smog due to the landfill fire. This succeeded in grabbing the authorities’ eyeballs who responded quickly to the situation.

Jwalant Naik, assistant engineer at Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) said: “The fire began at a four-month-old landfill site even where there wasn’t any activity going on. The cause of the fire at Khajod landfill is yet unknown, while we worked till 4am on Friday to control its spread.”

Activists of Project Surat are documenting the issues of landfill fires, their magnitude, characteristics and mitigation at present. Once the lockdown eases, they are hoping to raise further awareness among the denizens as well as authorities regarding these hazardous fires, said Akash, 28, who funds Project Surat himself, hoping to make the diamond city pollution and waste-free by 2025.