40 year long slumber

Bhopal was hit by a toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide pesticides production factory in the southern part of the city on the night of December 2-3, 1984. The methyl isocyanate gas spill, often called “India’s Hiroshima”, eventually killed 5,479 people, and left some 500,000 others injured from the poison they inhaled, leading to a spiral of suffering that continues to this day. Now, forty years down the line, it has taken the courts to note with anguish that the site has not yet been cleaned up.

Madhya Pradesh has been rapped for being still in a “state of inertia” that may cause “another tragedy”. The observations of the Madhya Pradesh High Court that this is a “really sorry state of affairs” are limited to the Union Carbide plant and lack of clean-up efforts, but the comment may well apply to the State of the nation. If the disaster was the fault of the company, the plant and its systems, then the failure to take the right actions in good time and deliver relief to the people is the failure of India, its regulatory systems and remedial processes.

Today, there are videos of cows and goats grazing around the long-deserted plant and images of the site with toxic waste, and junked out pieces and parts still lying around.  People in the surrounding settlements who depend on water drawn from the ground have complained that the tube well water has an odd taste to it. Multiple studies have shown high levels of contamination in the water and soil around the plant. For instance, in 2012, nearly three decades post the disaster, the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research found that the groundwater around the plant was polluted with heavy metals like lead and the contamination had spread to 18 colonies in the area. Water samples tested outside the factory in 2018 found toxic chemicals like chlorobenzene, which can damage the brain, liver, and kidneys.

In 1997, Eveready Industries India Ltd, which bought Union Carbide Corporation's (UCC) share in Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) commissioned the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to find out the extent of contamination at the Bhopal plant site. NEERI found high levels of toxins and identified hot spots at the Bhopal plant site. NEERI’s findings were corroborated by the environmental NGO Greenpeace which reported a massive scale of contamination in and around Bhopal plant. Based on the reports by NEERI and Greenpeace Bhopal activists sought legal remedies in US courts against UCC for causing environmental harm.

This has been like a ticking time bomb for those living within the wide reach of the contamination. While those affected, the survivors of the leak, are living horrific lives. Many developed cancer, a large number of the pregnant women had miscarriages, or delivered children with deformities and other long-term effects of toxic pollution which have also led to a large number of premature death. The people here have struggled with devastating health effects and environmental damage that have also led to loss of livelihoods.  Something that was not bargained for in the late 1970s when the Indian government introduced a policy of encouraging multinational corporations to invest in local industry.

The attraction of a vast market and cheap labour brought companies like UCC to India. UCIL built a plant in Bhopal for the manufacture of the commonly used pesticide Sevin. The pesticides plant was part of the drive to increase agrarian self-reliance. It was designed to formulate pesticides from component chemicals but UCIL set on a competitive route and started manufacturing raw materials and intermediaries to make the final product, all within one facility. While this was clever it was also risky.

The market downturn, a fall in the demand for pesticides prompted UCIL to consider opting out. As the company looked for a buyer or pondered over relocation of manufacturing to another country, production continued. But this was with less attention to safety procedures and equipment, a combination of the two, led to the disaster. When a faulty valve apparently allowed a ton of water to mix with 40 tons of MIC, key safety back-ups were missing. For instance, the vent-gas scrubber a safety device for neutralising toxic discharge had been turned off, the refrigeration unit that would have cooled the MIC storage tank had been drained off coolant.

Studies, surveys, recommendations, committees – have not resulted so far in any decisive action where the MIC disaster is concerned. Groups like the Bhopal gas peer review committee have recommended that future MNC projects should have more stringent environmental, health, and safety considerations.

Hazardous operations should be segregated from facilities and nearby domestic populations. Local communities should be relocated before any company is permitted to start mass production of dangerous substances. Standards of materials and equipment used during of future plants should be like those used in Western countries. But these recommendations have remained on paper.

Nothing much has changed from then and now. At that time, four days after the leak, UCC chairman and CEO Warren Anderson was arrested, released on bail, and flown back to the U.S. The deaths and suffering that followed the disaster and the environmental dangers that continue, have been swept under the rug. The abandoned plant has continued to threaten lives. But this time the victims of the Bhopal gas leak may get a reprieve.

The court ruling on a petition filed in 2004, has issued a warning of contempt proceedings against the principal secretary of the concerned department if the toxic waste is not disposed with in a month. The wake-up call and stern warning from the MP High Court is not just about the state of affairs in Madhya Pradesh, the rest of India needs to heed that call.

While this plays out and the clean up is hopefully done, the nation may ponder on opening up in ways that appear to bring benefits but actually can cause long term damage to the health and safety of its citizens. A strong India is not only about protecting the borders but equally about systems and processes that do not allow companies, particularly giants from foreign shores, to get away with anything less than standards that some of these companies are required to follow in their home countries. Even if the clean up happens, at long last, the other lesson for holding companies to account is yet to be learned.

(The writer is the Managing Editor of The Billion Press) (Syndicate: The Billion Press)