Bhopal’s poison factory

A few kilometers away from the city center in Bhopal, an abandoned factory lies in ruins. Rust gathers on tanks, pipes and machinery, and bottles of chemicals are strewn across the floors of dilapidated rooms.

This deserted campus was once a pesticide factory owned by the United States-based firm Union Carbide Corporation. Shortly after midnight on December 2, 1984, several tons of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate escaped from one of the units at the factory. The toxic fumes entered the homes of sleeping residents in nearby settlements, killing many instantly in their sleep. Around 3,000 died within a night, over 22,000 within the days and years that followed.

Poor health care for gas victims

Twenty-five years later, the disaster is not a thing of the past, says Satinath Sarangi, director of the Sambhavna Trust Clinic in Bhopal that provides free treatment to the gas victims. "In many ways, the conditions of the people are worse than on the morning of the disaster. More than 100,000 people are suffering from chronic illnesses related to the toxic gas exposure. Then there are tens of thousands of children born to gas-exposed parents with a range of growth and developmental disorders," he tells Deutsche Welle.

With a complete absence of research into the seemingly cross-generational effects of the toxic gas fumes, medical care in Bhopal is today reduced to purely symptomatic treatment. No system has been devised to identify a pattern to the specific disorders reported by the gas victims, like respiratory malfunctions, sensory ailments, skin or bone cancer, and so on.

Even medical care provided at hospitals is not up to the mark, says Alim Bazmi, a gas victim who today works as a journalist in a local daily, in an interview with Deutsche Welle. "Hospitals lack specialists dealing exclusively with gas-exposed patients, and even hi-tech instruments installed in the clinics have been gathering dust because there are few technicians trained to operate them," he says. As a result, patients are often forced to resort to poorly qualified doctors who even prescribe wrong medication.

‘Slow and deliberate poisoning'

Yet it is not just through the long-term effects of the gas exposure that the repercussions of the catastrophe are being felt till today. The now defunct Union Carbide factory continues to spread toxins among residents living nearby. This time it is through the ground: thousands of tons of toxic waste dumped over the years are now contaminating the soil and ground water reserves in the area.

"Many parts of the factory premises still have high quantities of chemical byproducts used in the pesticide making process. This is due to excessive spillage, and also the reckless manner in which waste was dumped on the company premises," says Tota Ram Chouhan, a former plant operator at the Union Carbide factory.

According to a study released earlier this week by an independent environmental research organization Center for Science and Environment (CSE), groundwater both at and near the factory site contained 40 times more pesticides than was normal for Indian standards. Even at a distance of more than three kilometers (1.8 miles) away, soil and water samples showed high concentrations of chlorinated benzene compounds as well as heavy metals like mercury and chromium. "The chemicals present in the soil are leaching into the groundwater and leading to slow and deliberate poisoning of residents," the study says.

The clean-up and the blame game

In its official statement on the Bhopal disaster the Union Carbide Corporation claims that it had spent $2 million (1.3 million euros) on clean-up efforts at the site following the tragedy, and says that all accountability for the site was taken over by the Madhya Pradesh (MP) state government in 1998.

But the MP government seems to be pointing the blame elsewhere. "There are currently 350 tons of toxic waste present at the Union Carbide site. We are trying to dispose this off at an incineration unit at Ankleshwar in the state of Gujarat, but it has been opposed by the authorities there. So now the matter is pending before the Supreme Court," Babulal Gaur, minister for Gas Relief and Rehabilitation in Bhopal, tells Deutsche Welle. However, he says that 40 tons of waste have already been burned within the state of MP.

Yet this approach does not address the issue of the already contaminated soil and groundwater at the site, says Sunita Narain, director of the CSE. "The waste stored within the factory is a small part of the total contamination present in the site. The focus of the government to just dispose of the stored waste and ignore the site contamination problem is, therefore, not going to solve the environmental problems from the factory."

Health hazard for residents

While the MP government admits there are large amounts of waste present at the factory, it has denied that there is any further contamination. A few days ahead of the 25th anniversary of the catastrophe, the government even announced that it would throw the factory open to the public next month. "We want to turn it into a memorial, where exhibitions will be held providing information about the disaster as well as about the Union Carbide factory and its products. It has been 25 years since the disaster, the site is now perfectly harmless," says Babulal Gaur.

This announcement has angered local NGOs as well as residents in the area, who are dependent on drinking water drawn from the ground using handpumps and bore wells. "The people here are living proof that the water is not harmless and contains toxins," Hazra Bee, a local activist who lives in a settlement opposite the factory site, tells Deutsche Welle. "There are complaints of breathlessness, chaotic menstrual cycles among the women, digestive disorders, joint pains, and other ailments. In fact a study was carried out on 20 young mothers in the area, and it was found that even their breast milk contained traces of chemicals."

Moreover, a rising number of children here are being born with birth defects. This is the case even among migrant populations who moved to Bhopal after the catastrophe and were not exposed to the toxic gas. "Studies are now going on to determine how much of these symptoms and birth defects is due to the gas tragedy and how much due to groundwater consumption," says Sarangi.

No alternate water source for many

Yet despite the harmful effects, many are forced to resort to this contaminated water for lack of a better alternative. A judgement by the Supreme Court of India in 2004 had directed the MP government to provide clean drinking water to the settlements around the factory site. Although a pipeline has now been built, local activists and residents say it still does not reach all the settlements on a regular basis.

"Even in areas where there is access, the pipeline is shared with a hospital nearby, and so people receive water only every alternate day. Some people are also being told it is a private connection and that they have to pay for it. These slum-dwellers don't have the means to pay this, so they resort to the hand pumps," says Abdul Jabbar, convener of the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghatana, a self-help group for gas-exposed women.

As the world remembers Bhopal on December 3 this year, these men and women hope their pleas will be heard; for while the disaster may have occurred 25 years ago, their struggles for a healthy life are from over.

Author: Pia Chandavarkar
Editor: Rob Mudge