Delhi's landfills are polluting groundwater, study warns
A new Delhi government study found that leachate from the city's big landfills—Bhalswa, Ghazipur, and Okhla—is seriously contaminating nearby groundwater.
Chemicals like chlorine and fluoride are showing up in much higher amounts than what's considered safe.
What's in the water?
Chlorine levels near Okhla were over eight times the safe limit. Hardness and fluoride also spiked.
This kind of pollution is risky for everyone but hits kids, pregnant women, and people with kidney or heart issues especially hard.
What happens next?
All three landfills are overflowing even as cleanup (biomining) is underway.
The government wants them cleared by July 2026 (Okhla), December 2026 (Bhalswa), and December 2027 (Ghazipur) and has started adding systems to catch toxic leaks.
But experts say unless Delhi gets better at sorting waste and managing landfill runoff, the contamination problem isn't going away anytime soon.