Several weeks ago, I posted a diary about
The Toxic Legacy of a US Company: Bhopal after 20 years. In short, the explosion 20 years ago at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India is still affecting the people in the villages around the now-abandoned plant. An article in today's edition of the online Independent, emphasizes that corporate greed is the underlying factor in why Bhopal hasn't been cleaned up yet. The author has interviewed some of the survivors. It's a fascinating, but very sad story.
More below the fold.
Here's the article.
Bhopal: A living legacy of corporate greed
Twenty years ago today poisonous gases spewed from a Union Carbide factory, killing thousands as they slept. It was the worst industrial accident in history. Justin Huggler meets the forgotten survivors
02 December 2004
The control room at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India, looks like something from one of those post-apocalyptic science fiction movies. Cow dung is splattered across the floor. There are rows upon rows of broken dials, their plastic covers smashed, the needles stuck. The scale models of the plant are shrouded in thick spiders' webs. A dirty sign on the wall reads "Safety is everybody's business".
Outside, eagles are nesting in the long-defunct flare tower. They swing overhead from time to time. Fluffy bits of asbestos float on the breeze. They are strewn across the ground, caught on gorse bushes. The vast metal hulk of the factory is silent, huge tangles of metal pipes and tubes running from tank to tank, slowly rusting in the Bhopal sun.
On the night of 2 December 1984, the worst industrial accident in history happened here. Highly poisonous methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the plant, together with even more toxic reaction compounds. Thousands of people were gassed to death as they slept in their beds near the factory. Others died on the road as they tried to flee, water pouring from their burning eyes, unbearable pain in their lungs, defecating and urinating in their clothes, unable to help themselves. They found dead mothers with their dead babies in their arms. In the months and years that followed, thousands more died from the effects of the gas they inhaled.
This is outrageous, but not surprising. Loopholes, my ass. Compensation, what's that?
Dow Chemicals, the company which took Union Carbide over in a merger, refuses to clean up the site. It claims it is no longer liable because it sold its shares in an Indian subsidiary.
[snip]
And all of them have received just £300 in compensation from Union Carbide. This is as much the fault of the Indian government as of the American company. In 1986, the Indian government agreed a deal in which Union Carbide paid just $470m (£245m) in compensation to victims. The government agreed to drop a legal case in which Union Carbide was expected to end up having to pay as much as $3bn in compensation. It agreed that the payment would end all Union Carbide's liability for the disaster. It never consulted the victims. Today, 15 years later, less than half of that money has been paid to the victims. The rest is still sitting in the Indian government's coffers, earning interest for the government, but not for its rightful owners, the victims of Bhopal. The injured have received 25,000 rupees each (£300). The relatives of those who died received 100,000 rupees (£1,200).
Now, for a few of the interviews:
"If I had died at that point it would have been better, because the pain was unbearable," Ms Bee says, remembering the night of the accident. "I couldn't open my eyes. When I finally opened them a little I saw dead people all over the road, and people were walking over them. There were people crying out to God to kill them because the pain was so unbearable." The pain has not gone away. Both Ms Bee's parents died of the long-term effects of the disaster. So did her sister-in-law. Her nephew, the son of the sister-in-law who died, went blind. "I saw so many deaths in my family, that's where I get the source of my energy to fight against the multinationals like Union Carbide," she says.
She is the more outwardly aggressive. Ms Shukla, a grey-headed, smiling lady in a yellow sari, at first seems too mild for a campaigner. But as she speaks you sense there is more to her.
"In 1992, my eldest son committed suicide. He was very sick, he got fed up with life. He took a pesticide called Sulphas. He was 20. He was in a lot of pain. My daughter is paralysed. She got married but she was not treated well by her in-laws. Both my daughters got married but both are back living in my house now.
"The deaths of my husband and son inspired me to take up activism. I thought nothing was left in my life, but I realised many others had lost their relatives and loved ones so I took up activism." Together, Ms Bee and Ms Shukla have won several awards for their activism. This year, they were joint winners of the Goldman Environmental Award, and they proudly display their awards for the camera.
Well, this diary has gotten a little long, so just go to the link for the article to read the rest.
Oh, and the BBC News site has another article, Bhopal remembers toxic gas leak, which mentions some action that is being taken by the Indian government.