IN November, when the Madhya Pradesh government decided to reopen the gates of Union Carbide India Limiteds (UCIL) pesticide factory in Bhopal to allow visitors, eyebrows were raised. The governments attempts, apart from being seen as promoting disaster tourism, were linked to a chain of events beginning with Union Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Rameshs Bhopal visit a few months earlier. During his visit, Ramesh picked a handful of toxic waste lying in the factory and said: Look, I am holding it in my hand and I am still alive. The State governments attempts were seen as a move to generate public opinion in favour of the theory that the factory premises were not contaminated anymore.
Interestingly, when the State government announced the postponement of the reopening to January, eyebrows were raised again. Activists and people of Bhopal did not seem convinced by the governments explanation for the decision. While the government cited the model code of conduct for the civic body elections being in force as the reason, leaders of gas survivors organisations said that the government obviously feared a backlash by the victims and hence cancelled the plan.
Ramesh had also announced the building of a memorial to mark the 25th year of the worlds worst industrial disaster. The Rs.116-crore memorial, to be built with Central assistance, would come up at the Union Carbide factory site.
So, in November, following the Centres proactive lead, the State government announced the opening of the gates of the factory. Survivors organisations protested and the State government had to obtain permission from the Madhya Pradesh High Court to go ahead with the plan. Babulal Gaur, Minister for Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation, announced that the factory site would be opened to visitors from November 29 to December 3.
The idea of the memorial and the reopening of the factory gates were both intended to prove that the site was no longer hazardous.
The State governments decision was based on reports from the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior, and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur.
The DRDE report stated that the waste was not harmful to mammals and that a human being weighing 70 kg could eat 200 grams of the waste and still be alive. The reports ruled out any groundwater contamination around the site.
Recently, the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) released its findings after it conducted a study of soil and groundwater samples collected from in and around the factory premises.
In October, the CSE collected several samples, including a waste sample from the forest shed, a surface water sample from the dump site, six soil samples from different parts of the factory and one soil sample from the solar evaporation pond outside the factory.
Laboratory tests of these samples revealed high levels of contamination of soil as well as groundwater, and the report confirmed that the waste and soil samples in and around the factory had high levels of carbaryl, mercury, lindane and chromium. The effects of the slow poisoning caused by these chemicals on health include excessive damage to liver and blood cells, bone defects and risk of cancer.
The CSE report differed from other studies in its methodology and scope. While others were groping in the dark we knew what was being manufactured in the UCIL plant and tested for only those substances, says Chandra Bhushan, associate director of the CSE.
The core argument of the CSE report was based on chronic toxicity as opposed to reports of government organisations, which were based on acute toxicity.
Chronic toxicity implies that continuous exposure, even in small amounts, can lead to poisoning of our bodies, explains CSE director Sunita Narain. So the claim that the factory is not dangerous because people can go inside, touch the waste and still be alive is misleading.
The report also stated that the concentration of pesticides was 1.1 to 38.6 times higher than permitted by the Indian standards. The water sample from a hand pump near the Chaurasia Samaj Mandir in Shiv Nagar, more than 3 km from the factory, was the most contaminated. It had the highest concentration of carbaryl (0.011 parts per million, or ppm, 110 times the standard); lindane (0.004 ppm, 40 times the standard) and mercury (0.024 ppm, 24 times the standard). It clearly said that there was no safe standard for these pesticides, thus challenging the DRDE reports.
The profile of chemicals found within the UCIL factory and the waste disposal site matches that of chemicals found in the groundwater samples from the colonies outside. There is no other source of these chlorinated benzene compounds and pesticides than UCIL, says Bhushan.
The CSE report confirmed excessive groundwater contamination, with all 11 groundwater samples collected from colonies found to be contaminated with chlorinated benzene compounds and organochlorine pesticides. The government, on the other hand, while acknowledging the presence of waste material inside the premises, has been consistent in ruling out groundwater contamination.
According to the CSE sources, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) collected the same waste and soil samples as the CSE and later did confirm off the record that the soil samples indicated high levels of contamination. As for groundwater samples, the CPCB decided to collect them separately.
According to Sunita Narain, groundwater contamination is the most difficult to deal with as it is an extremely expensive process and that is probably why the government is not talking about it. With the CSE report confirming excessive soil and groundwater contamination, the State government, which was in denial mode until December, loosened its stance a bit, indicating that the report would be taken seriously.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan assured the people of Bhopal that the State government would not go ahead with the proposed memorial unless the site was totally decontaminated. Babulal Gaur said that the report would be sent to the Central government as well as the authorities concerned for further analysis.
With this, the plans for the proposed memorial seem to have suffered a setback. The memorial has been a bone of contention between the Central and State governments on the one side and the activists on the other, although evidence suggests that activist organisations may not be fully opposed to the idea of the memorial. In February this year, leaders of six Bhopal-based survivors organisations had approached UNESCO Director and representative for India, Minja Yang, to convey their wish to preserve this building as a memorial place.
However, some activists suspect that with both the Central and State governments trying to wash their hands off the Bhopal tragedy, the memorial would prove the final nail in the coffin for the survivors who are yet to get justice.
I think it is just eyewash, says Abdul Jabbar, a prominent social activist working with the victims of the tragedy since 1984. The allocation of Rs.116 crore for the memorial should have been spent on the welfare of the victims, who continue to live a life of misery. The idea of a memorial is just to divert the worlds attention from the real issues persisting in Bhopal even after 25 years, he says.
The activists also fear that the construction of the memorial would mean issues such as decontamination of soil and groundwater will remain unattended and be forgotten. However, government representatives and others concerned have consistently stated their justification for a memorial. I think the people of Bhopal need the memorial to connect to their past, to make sense of what went wrong, says Moulshri Joshi, principal architect with Space Matters, a Delhi-based firm that has been awarded the contract to design the memorial site.
We in India have a habit of preserving only the good aspects of our past. I strongly believe there is a need to negotiate with the not-so-good aspects as well rather than closing our eyes to them, says Moulshri Joshi.
According to Babulal Gaur, the UCIL site needs to be converted into a memorial so that people could pay homage to the victims and learn from the past. When Hiroshima and Chernobyl can have memorials, why cannot Bhopal? he is reported to have told mediapersons.
Twenty-five years have passed since that fateful night, followed by 25 years of struggle, of resilience, of hope and consistent betrayal. In August this year, when the Chief Judicial Magistrate issued a second non-bailable warrant against Warren Anderson, the then chairman and CEO of Union Carbide Corporation and the prime accused in the criminal case against Union Carbide, and others, the people of Bhopal spilled on to the streets to celebrate. Twenty-five years of misery, a few days of celebration, a lifetime of hope. Bhopal continues.
Mahim Pratap SinghCOMMents
COMMents
SHARE