Bhopal gas leak victims stage rally at Union Carbide factory
Bhopal: Victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy and their families held a rally outside Union Carbide Factory to mark 25th anniversary of world's most deadly industrial disaster. The factory
was seen as a symbol of the new emerging India -- a factory that would not only
generate thousands of jobs, but manufacture cheap pesticides for millions of farmers.
But the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal left a more potent legacy when it accidentally
released toxic gases into the air, killing thousands of people and causing many
more to suffer in the world's most deadly industrial disaster. Suffering survivors
were holding placards, banners and installations showing guilty political leaders
and officials of Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals. "Organisations will keep on
protesting till the time Bhopal gas victims doesn't get justice and life of dignity.
Recently, prime minister has given a statement that they will take possible measures
to help the victims are rehabilitate and to provide them relief. We also want
to say that the promise which PM made 18 months back about formulating authorised
commission for Bhopal, should fulfil his promise and constitute it be immediately,"
said Rachna Sarangi, a woman protestor. A tableaux and other installations depicting
guilty behind the bars and faces of Indian prime minister and Congress party president
on effigy of donkey and dog respectively were part of the rally. A quarter of
a century on, the derelict factory stands abandoned, but behind its locked iron
gates lies what environmentalists say is "a disaster within a disaster" -- a highly
polluted site which, according to a new study, is slowly poisoning the drinking
water for thousands of Indians. Bhopal has long cast a shadow over India and how
it handles the challenges of a 1.1 billion, largely poor population, improve health
and safety regulations, and a fast-growing economy. A report by the Center for
Science and Environment (CSE), which in October tested the toxicity levels of
ground water and soil samples in and outside the plant, now suggested that the
entire site is highly contaminated. In the early hours of December 3, 1984, around
40 metric tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere
and was carried by the wind to the surrounding slums. The government says around
3,500 died as a result of the disaster. Activists however calculate that 25,000
people died in the immediate aftermath and the years that followed. Activists
and health workers say a further 100,000 people who were exposed to the gas continue
to suffer today. Sicknesses range from cancer, blindness, respiratory difficulties
immune and neurological disorders, female reproductive disorders as well as birth
defects among children born to affected women. But activists and lawyers representing
the affected populations from the nearby slums say the tragedy of this disaster
is that it continues unabated. Around 340 metric tonnes of chemical waste are
stored in a warehouse inside the plant and needs to be disposed of. Dow Chemical,
which now owns Union Carbide, denies any responsibility saying it bought the company
a decade after Union Carbide had settled its liabilities to the Indian government
in 1989 by paying 470 million dollars for the victims. Authorities also have for
years refuted claims that the water is contaminated, saying that various studies
commissioned by the government have found no evidence of pollution. However, the
CSE report contradicts the government's findings, saying samples taken from around
the factory site were found to contain chlorinated benzene compounds and organochlorine
pesticides 561 times the national standard. Samples taken as far as 3 km (1.9
miles) away from the plant were found to have toxic chemicals 38.6 times more
than the standard. The report said there could be no other source of these toxins
than Union Carbide.
