Photo Essay: Bhopal gas tragedy

 

Photo Essay: Bhopal gas tragedy

The Bhopal disaster was one of the world’s worst industrial catastrophes. It occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, capital of the state Madhya Pradesh, India. A leak of methyl isocynate gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people.

 

DIRECT EFFECT

Estimates of no. of deaths vary upon the different organizations. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release.  Greenpeace (an international environmental non-governmental organisation) estimates 3,000-8000 died within weeks and another 8,000-20,000 have since died from gas-related diseases. According to the Indian Council for Medical Research, 25,000 people have died from exposure since the initial explosion. But this is not some quarter-century-old tragedy to shake one’s head over and move on. It’s estimated that 10 to 30 people continue to die from exposure every month. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.

 

The UCIL factory was built in 1969 to produce the pesticide Sevin (UCC’s brand name for carbaryl) using methyl isocyanate (MIC) as an intermediate. An MIC production plant was added in 1979.

 

NIGHT OF TRAGEDY

In the midnight of December 2-3, 1984, water entered a tank containing 42 tons of MIC. The resulting exothermic reaction increased the temperature inside the tank to over 200 °C (392 °F) and raised the pressure. The tank vented releasing toxic gases into the atmosphere. The gases were blown by northwesterly winds over Bhopal. The problem was made worse by the mushrooming of slums in the vicinity of the plant, non-existent catastrophe plans, and shortcomings in health care and socio-economic rehabilitation.

Main factors leading to the magnitude of the gas leak include:

■Storing MIC (methyl isocyanate) in large tanks and filling beyond recommended levels

            ■Poor maintenance after the plant ceased MIC production at the end of 1984

            ■Failure of several safety systems (due to poor maintenance)

■Safety systems being switched off to save money—including the MIC tank refrigeration system which could have mitigated the disaster severity

LONG TERM EFFECT ON ENVIRONMENT

Instead of leaking gas into the skies, the old UC factory leaks deadly chemicals into the soil and ultimately into the water supply of locals. Approximately 8,000 tons of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals lie abandoned in the old plant, including mercury, due in large part to a lack of political willpower to enforce the financing of a multimillion dollar cleanup operation. Over two decades of monsoons have washed much of these chemicals in to an underground aquifer which feeds in to wells and boreholes used by locals to extract drinking water.

JUDICIAL JOURNEY

In 1989 Rajiv Gandhi’s government came to an out of court settlement with Union Carbide India Limited without consulting survivors, under which $470m — the exact sum UC was afforded by their insurers — would be paid in compensation resolving all outstanding legal issues.

COMPENSATION - At first glance this figure may appear significant, but after being divided between roughly 550,000 people, and with various administrative problems, it amounted to approximately $500 per victim to cope with a lifetime of misery, or, 7p a day. This is the cost of a cup of tea. Prior to this settlement, victims had received $5 per month, and stunningly, even this figure was stingily deducted from the final pay out. Amazingly, UC also failed to take responsibility for the disaster, speaking instead of ‘sabotage’.

In 1994, most probably as a strategy to avoid further liability and in light of threats by Indian courts to seize their assets, UC sold its Indian branch to Eveready Industries India Limited. UC was then officially purchased by the Dow Chemical Company in 2001, a controversial corporation with a murky history. Whereas Dow was quick to set aside billions for UC asbestos workers in Texas, it immediately denied liability for UC’s doings in Bhopal, stating that the 1989 payment fulfilled their financial responsibility to the disaster.

LONG WAY AHEAD

The survivors' organisations have handed over the new documents to the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), which is now pursuing the extradition of Warren Anderson to India, following repeated orders to do so from the Bhopal District Court. The Indian government had all along assumed, on the basis of flawed legal advice given to it, that the evidence on record was not sufficient to meet the `probable cause standard' applicable in the U.S. in extradition matters. (A U.S. court will not agree to extradite an accused person to another country unless there is prima facie evidence directly linking him to the cause of the disaster — Frontline, January 18, 2002.) It may now have to reconsider its stand in the light of these "discoveries". People have protested in London Olympics against the Dow Chemicals’ sponsorship.