Bhopal News

By Kate | Permalink | No Comments | May 29th, 2007 | Trackback

The latest news about Bhopal (see my take on the background here) is that the Madhya Pradesh government has arranged for an Indian firm in Gujurat - another state - to burn the chemicals for 9 million rupees. Environmental groups are protesting this. There are definitely health hazards of leaving the chemicals sitting around. It’s also hard to imagine there would not be hazards connected to transporting and burning them. And where do Dow and/or Union Carbide fit in?

From one – of many – sides (the environmentalists and survivor representative):
“But environmentalists say the decision to move the tar-smeared waste to neighbouring Gujarat will be disastrous and are protesting against it…”Union Carbide created the mess so they should clear it,” says Madhumita Datta, a campaigner for the rights of survivors.”Why is any Indian company touching it?”

From a state environmental board:
“Datta said India did not have the technology to safely dispose the waste and warned if it is burnt it would pollute the air. But the state-run Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) disagrees.
“We cannot get emotional. Let’s burn the waste and forget it forever,” GPCB secretary Sanjiv Tyagi told Reuters.”

From Dow:
“Dow has urged the Madhya Pradesh government to withdraw a clean-up suit against it, saying that no court has ever held it responsible for the disposal of waste at the Bhopal plant. In 1989, Union Carbide paid $470 million compensation to victims and said responsibility for the clean-up lay with officials. The Madhya Pradesh government took over the site in 1998.”

I’m really at a loss. So much damage has already been done. Is it really best to just “cut the losses” and take this option, counting on the fact that Dow will find a way to avoid responsibility forever? It’s sad to think that this could be the case – and I really just don’t know. And the truth is, despite my insight into this situation, it is, as I’ve already mentioned, extremely complicated, and there are no doubt facets of it I’ve overlooked.

I do know that while my common sense and basic experience in Bhopal tells me that properly disposing of these chemicals is a necessary step, these things also tell me that it is hardly the only step. While disposing of these chemicals properly should not be construed as solving the problem by any means, it seems like it still needs to be done. But situations like this illustrate the difficulty of reaching that point.

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