http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/05/asia/mumbai-giant-garbage-dump-fire/index.html
Mumbai, India (CNN) On any regular morning in the bustling port city of Mumbai in western India, a thick, yellow-gray pall hangs over the city. Driving on one of the metropolis' highways, buildings just dozens of meters away are hard to make out through the early morning smog.
And as you approach Deonar, the city's oldest, and by some accounts Asia's largest, garbage dump, the air thickens and constrains the throat. It affects the thousands of poverty-stricken residents that exist on the sidelines of this sprawling, 132-hectare site.
It receives 4,000 tons of waste a day, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) tells CNN, that is dumped on top of the previous day's deposit each day. Over the years, the city's waste has accumulated into staggering, towering mounds of garbage.
Acrid smoke
The air pollution around Deonar has been particularly bad over the last few days; an acrid, choking haze that coats the back of the throat, reddens the eyes and shortens the breath. Even still, it's much better than it was in the hours following the morning of January 28, when huge fires erupted around the site, immediately cloaking the area in thick, black smoke that blotted out the sun.
An image posted by NASA showed the scale of the incident, with a thick plume of smoke visible from space. The cause of the fires remain under investigation, though authorities say the blazes could have been triggered by combustible gases from disintegrating garbage.
Mumbai, India (CNN) On any regular morning in the bustling port city of Mumbai in western India, a thick, yellow-gray pall hangs over the city. Driving on one of the metropolis' highways, buildings just dozens of meters away are hard to make out through the early morning smog.
And as you approach Deonar, the city's oldest, and by some accounts Asia's largest, garbage dump, the air thickens and constrains the throat. It affects the thousands of poverty-stricken residents that exist on the sidelines of this sprawling, 132-hectare site.
It receives 4,000 tons of waste a day, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) tells CNN, that is dumped on top of the previous day's deposit each day. Over the years, the city's waste has accumulated into staggering, towering mounds of garbage.
Acrid smoke
The air pollution around Deonar has been particularly bad over the last few days; an acrid, choking haze that coats the back of the throat, reddens the eyes and shortens the breath. Even still, it's much better than it was in the hours following the morning of January 28, when huge fires erupted around the site, immediately cloaking the area in thick, black smoke that blotted out the sun.
An image posted by NASA showed the scale of the incident, with a thick plume of smoke visible from space. The cause of the fires remain under investigation, though authorities say the blazes could have been triggered by combustible gases from disintegrating garbage.
