This month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the second phase of his government's "Clean India campaign", specifically pledging to remove the "garbage mountains" that have plagued major cities for years. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on the 18th, India's large landfills have become a "public nuisance" everywhere, posing a threat to the urban environment and safety as well as the health of residents. However, due to the large size of some landfills, some experts believe that Modi's government will not be easy to "move mountains"; Some media pointed out that if the government completely clears up these landfills, millions of people in India who "rely on the mountains" are afraid of losing their livelihoods.

According to the Indian Express, the "Clean India campaign" is a public sanitation project launched by the Indian government in 2014. It is divided into two phases: "rural clean campaign" and "urban clean campaign". The previous phase lasted for five years. A few days ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially announced that the "Clean India Campaign" will enter the "2.0 phase", the new phase of government work will focus on the "garbage free city" and the comprehensive purification of urban water two major themes.

In his speech, Modi named the Ghazipur dump (pictured), a superlandfill in the capital New Delhi, promising that such "garbage mountains" would be removed in the future. India will build a series of waste and sewage treatment plants to gradually replace open landfills, effectively improving the urban environment and creating "green jobs".

The Modi government is reportedly planning to spend around 1.41 trillion rupees (120 billion yuan) on the Clean India 2.0 campaign. But many environmental experts have expressed doubts about the scale of the government's ambitions. The government's environmental plans may work in smaller cities, but the existing super-landfills in big cities are too large to be "digested" by human means, said Ganyam Ganyam, head of the nonprofit Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi.

According to a 2020 study by the Center for Science and Environment, India has 3,159 "garbage mountains" that hold 800 million tons of garbage. Among them, the Deonar landfill, located on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, is the country's largest and oldest. It was put into use as early as 1927. Today, more than 16 million tons of garbage are piled up here. The mountain is 36.5 meters high and covers an area of more than 120 hectares.

With the "rival" another super landfill is the New Delhi Gazipur dump mentioned by Modi, its size is equal to 40 football fields, 2,000 tons of new garbage a day, its "mountain" height is reached a staggering 65 meters, was dubbed by the locals as "India's garbage first peak" "garbage mountain Mount Everest". Some media even called for municipal departments to install navigational lights on it.

The existence of "garbage mountain" has seriously affected the surrounding environment, polluting the air and water. As the mountain decomposes or decays, toxic gases such as methane, hydrogen sulphide and carbon monoxide are released, creating a fire hazard, the BBC said. In 2016, a fire at the Deonar landfill burned for months, leaving the city of Mumbai shrouded in smog. The Washington Post described the landfill as a "city's silent killer" and a "toxic time bomb", saying that the smoke from the "garbage mountain" fire could be seen from space. While the fire lasted, local hospitals saw a spike in the number of patients with respiratory problems.

Similar safety concerns exist at the Gazipur landfill. According to the New York Times, a heavy rain in 2018 caused a "cave-in" in the landfill's garbage mountain, killing several locals. The landfill allegedly had no anti-seepage system in place, causing serious pollution to the local water source.

The "garbage mountain" is not only an environmental problem, but also the livelihood of many of India's poor. According to the BBC, every morning, 19-year-old Farha shows up at a landfill on the outskirts of Mumbai to wait for the trucks to dump her plastic bottles, glass and wire, which are then taken to the recycling station for cash. If she's lucky, she'll pick up an old phone every once in a while, spend a little money on repairs, and use it to watch movies and play video games until it fails again. According to TheNewsMinute, there are an estimated 1.5 million to 4 million garbage dump workers like Farha across India, the vast majority of whom come from humble backgrounds with no decent education or skills, and these scavengers fear that Clean India 2.0 will leave them without a livelihood.

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