Pervez Bari | Clarion India
BHOPAL — The Central and Madhya Pradesh governments have been warned of the creation of a slow-motion Bhopal in and around Pithampur, an industrial town near Dhar city. The area is part of the Indore Metropolitan Region and suffers from unsafe disposal of overground waste from the abandoned Union Carbide factory at the facility run by Re Sustainability Ltd.
Addressing a joint press conference here on Wednesday, leaders of four organisations of survivors of the December 1984 Union Carbide catastrophe in Bhopal forewarned the governments of the day.
It may be recalled here that Union Carbide pesticide manufacturing factory had spewed nearly 40 tonnes of poisonous Methyl Iso-cyanate gas exposing over 5,00,000 people to the toxic fumes. While 3,000 people had perished virtually instantly and over the years more than 25,000 have kissed death and the sad saga is continuing uninterruptedly. About half a million people are still suffering from the side effects of the poisonous gas and several thousand people have been maimed for life.
“According to the technical presentation of the Ministry of Environment & Forests on the matter of incineration of Union Carbide’s hazardous waste, 900 tonnes of residue will be generated after incineration. It is important to keep in mind that these 900 tonnes will have a very high concentration of poisonous heavy metals,” said Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karamchari Sangh. “The so-called secure landfills at Pithampur have been leaking poisonous leachate for some years now. The officials have no way to ensure that the poisons from 900 tonnes of residue will not contaminate the sources of water in and around Pithampur,” she added.
Citing the scientific investigations carried out by a local media house, Balkrishna Namdeo of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogee Sangharsh Morcha said: “A report in a newspaper mentions severe contamination of water sources around Pithampur and high prevalence of illnesses caused by the emissions and effluents from the facility run by Re Sustainability Ltd. Any trust we had on the MP Pollution Control Board has been badly shaken with the revelations in the newspaper report, because it has never mentioned these routine environmental crimes.”
Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information & Action said: “As per official plans, the incineration of hazardous waste from Bhopal is to be carried out for up to three and half months. The population likely to be exposed to airborne poisons and particulate matter from the incinerator for such a long period is well over a hundred thousand. It is nothing short of deliberately creating a public health disaster.”
Speaking on the long history of opposition to the disposal of Union Carbide’s hazardous waste at Pithampur, Nawab Khan of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha said: “Mr Jayant Mallaiya as the Environment Minister and Mr Babulal Gaur as the Minister for Gas Relief had opposed plans of incinerating the Bhopal waste at Pithampur in several official meetings. The Commissioner Gas Relief had, in fact, filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court against incineration at Pithampur. We are bringing these facts out in the open now so that the officials currently in the process of turning Pithampur into a slow-motion Bhopal cannot say later that they did not know.”
