Woman near Delhi landfill endures smog and air pollution

The Star

Surrounded by tonnes of waste emitting noxious gases, Hema, 40, a homemaker residing in the congested slums next to the Bhalswa landfill site, is gasping for clean air amid soaring pollution in New Delhi.   WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00Surrounded by tons of waste emitting noxious gases, 40-year-old Hema, a homemaker residing

00:09in the congested slums next to the Bhalswa landfill site, is gasping for clean air amid

00:15soaring pollution in New Delhi.

00:17While residents in India's capital city and other northern states have recently been concerned

00:22about pollution-induced illnesses, especially during winter, Hema has been consuming toxic

00:28air from the Bhalswa landfill for the past 25 years.

00:32Living in a neighbourhood filled with people who work as rag pickers, Hema and several

01:02others like her have always been exposed to noxious gases, including methane and carbon

01:07monoxide, that come from the toxic waste dumped at the landfill.

01:12Hema used to collect waste for 15 years, after which she had to stop because of health concerns.

01:32Bharti Chaturvedi, founder of an environmental research group, Chintan, said the impact of

01:56pollution on people living near landfill sites is much worse as they do not have the

02:02best access to health care.

02:03So they're breathing two kinds of things, they're breathing direct landfill pollution

02:08and they're breathing the general air pollution, so it definitely gets much worse for them.

02:13And on top of that, remember, these are people without the best access to health care, these

02:20are malnourished, vulnerable, poor people.

02:24So they themselves don't have the resilience that a middle class person may have.

02:30India battles air pollution every winter as cold, heavy air traps, dust, emissions and

02:37smoke from farm fires started illegally in the farming states of Punjab and Haryana.

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