Samaw.com

On December 3, 1984, a gas tank exploded at the United States-owned Union Carbide pesticides manufacturing plant in Bhopal city, Madhya Pradesh, India. The explosion released 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC gas) in a lethal cloud that dispered over the densely populated city killing thousands of people and the effect of the disaster is being felt till today.

According to the officials, 2,259 people died that night, and within three days, 8,000 were dead.

Officials have confirmed that consequently at least 15,000 people have died from cancer and other ailments related to the toxic gas leak; and about 500,000 (half a million) people were exposed to the gas.

It caused children with birth defects and growth deficiency, as well as cancers, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Many still suffer from its effects till today.

Activists have put the death toll at 33,000 and claimed that toxins from thousands of tonnes of chemicals lying in and around the site have seeped into the ground and contaminated the water sources.

Some 25 years after the gas leak, 390 tonnes of toxic chemicals abandoned at the Union Carbide plant continue to leak and pollute the ground water in the region and affect thousands of Bhopal residents who depend on it, according to activists.

Though there is some dispute as to whether the chemicals still stored at the site pose any continuing health hazard.

According to BBC news, Union Carbide had paid 470 million dollars to the Indian government in 1989 in a settlement. Later Union Carbide was taken over by Chicago-based Dow Chemicals.

The Dow Chemical says it is not responsible for the clean up as it never owned or operated the plant at the time of the tragedy. Presently, the Madhya Pradesh government is in possession of the land and the abandoned plant of the Union Carbide.

No one has been booked or arrested in this case till today. The victims want the government to punish the guilty and remove the toxic waste from the plant that still contaminates the soil and groundwater.

Bhopal gas tragedy has often been described as the world’s worst industrial disaster.

For Bhopal residents and the victims in particular, December 3 will always be remembered, a day to call justice one more time, one more chance!