Cleaning Delhi: Living in a dirty city

Rani Pandey (center) and her husband Anuj (right) stand in front of their home in Anna Nagar, one of the largest slums in New Delhi. The Pandeys live on the edge of the slum, closer to the polluted water and much of the garbage. | Photo by Emily Walkenhorst

Story by Emily Walkenhorst

Inside her one-room, tin house, Rani Pandey said she resents the media, government and many nongovernmental organizations because they ask a lot of questions, but nothing ever changes.

Rani lives in Anna Nagar, one of the largest slums in New Delhi. The shack she shares with her husband and three children is near a wastewater stream on the edge of the slum.

The murky stream is a dumping ground for their trash and contributes to the slum’s odor.

“(They) just come here and ask questions and then never respond,” said Rani, who’s lived in Anna Nagar since she was 18, in Hindi. “Things are similar for the last 20 years.”

Life amid the waste

Across Delhi, the capital city of the largest democracy on earth, trash contributes to water and soil contamination, mosquito problems and related illnesses that make working difficult. Trash piles up in the slums more than anywhere else, because those who live there have settled without permission. They don’t pay taxes and don’t receive trash pick-up services.

Amit Nagar Colony has lived in Anna Nagar for 25 of his 28 years. His son has Dengue fever, a disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Dengue fever is treatable if detected early, but if not or if contracted again, it can be fatal.

Malaria and diarrhea are also big issues in the slums, and typhoid, too.

Colony is worried about the water. He said the government isn’t treating the water properly and that the water quality is getting worse.

“It’s not water. It is acid,” said Imran Khan, assistant manager of Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group.

Colony’s sister, Rakhi, lives with another brother, her brother’s wife and their two children in a one-room, electric-blue shack.

“All is damaged and dirty,” Rakhi said in Hindi. “I want to change everything.”

Rakhi sits on the bed in her home next to her brother’s children. She’s eight months pregnant and said she hasn’t gained any weight. | Photo by Matthew Masin

Rakhi’s husband left her over family disagreements, and she’s eight months pregnant. Her pregnancy barely shows and veins stick out in her hands and arms. She takes supplements and drinks juices for her pregnancy, but said she hasn’t gained any weight.

Rakhi, 22, has lived in Anna Nagar her entire life. She says she isn’t happy.

Calony said his family wants to leave the slum, but has no place to go. He lives with much of his extended family in several tightly connected homes. He hopes to move into an apartment, which would have basic trash services, soon after the next election in the spring of 2012.

As a part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, a government plan that has been delayed since the mid-’90s, slum-dwellers will be moved to government-subsidized apartments. But they’ll have to pay rent.

Suneel Pandey, a fellow at the Centre for Environmental Studies, said the rent could be anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 rupees a month, or about $24 to $71, depending on the tenants’ jobs. Many who have already made the move have moved back to the slums after being unable to afford the rent, according to Pandey.

Trash across Delhi

Many slum areas develop because potential jobs are located nearby. Pandey said the government is considering including the slums into its garbage pickup routes, rather than moving everyone out.

In the slums, the effects of the trash sites are worse. The trash sites can cause dizziness, breathing problems, skin rashes and general sickness. The problems are worse during monsoon season.

The garbage exposes people, soil and ground water to methane and high levels of nitrate. While most of Delhi relies on river water, people in the slums rely on ground water.

In Delhi, about 8,000 tons of garbage are generated daily, or about 1 pound per person. About 23 million people live in Delhi.

The three trash disposal sites in Delhi overflow with garbage. The dumps are all located within the city now rather than the outskirts because of population growth. The city is looking to build another, more environmentally progressive disposal site, but has no choice but to place it within the city as well.

A street in Delhi floods following rain on July 26. Floods often happen, because the street drains are clogged with litter. This flooding can damage the soil and impede transportation and electricity. | Photo by Emily Walkenhorst

But the disposal sites aren’t all that’s overflowing. Litter has caused drains to fill up with garbage, leading to street flooding during rains.

The government says that 85 to 90 percent of the garbage is picked up daily, according to Pandey. What is left is picked up later in the week.

Garbage is picked up twice a day, in the morning and evening, but only from trash bins. The litter that lines the streets and lays strewn around parks remains untouched.

“In Delhi, trash bins are not so popular,” Pandey said.

Littering is a cultural mindset that has been slow to change, he said.

“It’s a big concern for India,” he said. “For solid waste, people are still insensitive.”

Education and incentives are tools to make this change.

Littering is a 50 rupee, or a little more than $1, fine, but local police rarely enforce the fines, according to Pandey.

Enforcing the fine is more expensive than the fees themselves could match. Pandey said the fine would need to be closer to 500 rupees, about $10.

Another big issue is a lack of recycling.

Pandey said he is working with others on a zero-waste model, or a way to reuse all the garbage in some way.

For now, Delhi needs more trash bins, let alone recycling facilities, according to Pandey. Not everyone uses them anyway, although they are more used now than before.

“(Littering is) still basically people’s mindset,” he said. “Such mindset, it takes time to change.”

Additional reporting and translating by Ekta Srivastava.