Toxic waste removed from Union Carbide factory after 40 years

Indian authorities have removed hundreds of tons of toxic waste from an Indian chemical factory that witnessed one of the world’s deadliest gas leaks 40 years ago.

In December, a court had set a deadline of four weeks to remove the waste.

On Wednesday, the toxic waste — about 337 tons — was moved from Union Carbide’s factory in the central Indian city of Bhopal to an incinerator facility about 230 kilometers (143 miles) away.

Officials say it will take between three and nine months to treat and destroy the waste, but activists have raised concerns about the potential harm to the health of people in communities at the new location.

Thousands of people deceased in Bhopal in December 1984 after breathing poisonous gas leaking from the factory.

Since then, the toxic material remained in the suspended factory and contaminated the surrounding groundwater.

The toxic waste removed from the factory this week included five types of hazardous materials, including pesticide residue and “permanent chemicals” left over from its manufacturing process. These chemicals are so named because they retain their toxic properties indefinitely.

For decades, these chemicals at the abandoned factory site had been slowly leaching into the surrounding environment, creating a persistent health hazard for people living in nearby areas.

A 2018 study by the Indian Institute of Toxicological Research revealed that high concentrations of metals and chemicals have contaminated groundwater in 42 residential areas near the factory.

After decades of inaction, the Madhya Pradesh state High Court on December 3 set a four-week deadline for authorities to remove toxic waste from the site.

The court stated that the authorities “are still in a state of inertia despite 40 years.”

The process of moving the waste began on Sunday when officials began packing it into leak-proof bags. These bags were loaded on Wednesday into 12 sealed trucks.

Authorities said the waste was transported under strict security measures.

There were police escorts, ambulances, firefighters and a rapid response team with the convoy of trucks transporting the waste, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

Swatantra Kumar Singh, head of the Bhopal gas tragedy relief and rehabilitation department, told news agency PTI that initially, some of the waste would be burnt at the disposal unit in Pithampur and its residue would be examined for toxic remains.

He said special measures have been taken to ensure that fumes from the incinerator or ash left afterward do not contaminate the air or water.

But activists and people living near the landfill have been protesting against the move.

They said a small amount of Carbide factory waste was destroyed at the plant on a test basis in 2015, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

It ended up contaminating soil, groundwater and freshwater bodies in nearby villages, they said.

Singh has denied these claims and stated that incineration of toxic waste would have “no adverse impact” on nearby villages.

But Rachna Dhingra, of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, told the BBC World Service that the waste transfer would “create a Bhopal in slow motion” at the new location.

Over the years, officials have made several attempts to dispose of waste from the Bhopal factory, but abandoned their plans after facing resistance from activists.

In 2015, India’s pollution control board said toxic waste would be incinerated in Gujarat, but the plan was abandoned after protests.

The board later also identified sites in the states of Hyderabad and Maharashtra, but faced similar resistance.

The Bhopal gas tragedy is one of the world’s biggest 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 afterward.

But activists say the death toll is much higher. Victims continue to suffer the side effects of poisoning even today.

In 2010, an Indian court convicted seven former plant managers, giving them minor fines and short prison sentences. But many victims and activists say justice has yet to be served, given the magnitude of the tragedy.

Union Carbide was an American company that Dow Chemicals purchased in 1999.