Bhopal gas tragedy: Toxic waste removed from Union carbide factory after 40 years
2025-01-02
Category: news

Authorities in India have removed hundreds of tonnes of toxic waste from an Indian chemical factory that witnessed one of the world's deadliest gas leaks 40 years ago.A court in December had set a four-week deadline for the waste to be disposed. On Wednesday, the toxic waste - around 337 tonnes - was taken from the Union Carbide factory in the central Indian city of Bhopal to an incinerator facility around 230km (143 miles) away.It will take between three and nine months to treat and destroy the waste. 
Thousands of people died in December 1984 after breathing a poisonous gas leaked from the factory. Since then, the toxic material had been lying in the mothballed factory, polluting groundwater in the surrounding areas.The toxic waste cleared from the factory this week included five types of hazardous materials - including pesticide residue and "forever chemicals" left from its manufacturing process. These chemicals get the name because they retain their toxic properties indefinitely.Over decades, these chemicals at the abandoned factory site had been slowly seeping into the surrounding environment, creating a persistent health hazard for people who live in nearby areas.
A 2018 study by the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research revealed that high concentrations of metals and chemicals have contaminated groundwater across 42 residential areas near the factory.After decades of inaction, the Madhya Pradesh state High Court on 3 December set a four-week deadline for authorities to dispose of the toxic waste material from the site. The court said that authorities were "still in a state of inertia despite 40 years".The process of moving the waste began on Sunday when officials started packing it in leak-proof bags. These bags were then loaded onto 12 sealed trucks on Wednesday. Officials said the waste was transported under tight security.There were police escorts, ambulances, fire brigades and a quick response team with the convoy of trucks carrying the waste, the Indian Express newspaper reported. Swatantra Kumar Singh, the head of Bhopal gas tragedy relief and rehabilitation department, told the PTI news agency that initially, some of the waste would be burnt at the disposal unit in Pithampur and its residue examined for toxic remains.He said that special arrangements have been made to ensure that fumes from the incinerator or the ash left after do not pollute the air and water. However, activists and people living near the disposal site have been protesting against the move. They said that a small amount of waste from the Carbide factory was destroyed at the plant on a trial basis in 2015, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported. It ended up polluting the soil, underground water as well as fresh water bodies in the nearby villages, they said. But Mr Singh has denied these claims. He said that incineration of toxic waste would not have "any adverse impact" on nearby villages.Over the years, officials have made several attempts to dispose of the waste from the  Bhopal factory but dropped their plans after facing resistance from activists.  In 2015, India's pollution control board said that the toxic waste would be incinerated in Gujarat but the plan was dropped after protests. The board later identified sites in Hyderabad and Maharashtra states as well, but faced similar resistance. The Bhopal gas tragedy is the one of the world's largest industrial disasters. According to government estimates, around 3,500 people died within days of the gas leak and more than 15,000 in the years since. But activists say that the death toll is much higher. Victims continue to suffer from the side-effects of being poisoned even today.In 2010, an Indian court convicted seven former managers at the plant, handing down minor fines and brief prison sentences. But many victims and campaigners say that justice has still not been served, given the magnitude of the tragedy.Union Carbide was a US company which Dow Chemicals bought in 1999.