While controversy rages over the method and agency to be involved in clearing up the stockpile of toxic waste lying inside the abandoned Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, the hazardous material continues to pollute ground water on a massive scale as the soil inside the factory premises, particularly in its northern and north-eastern side, remains contaminated by toxic chemicals.
The group of ministers on Bhopal has recommended complete decommissioning and dismantling of the hazardous plant. This is to be done by the state government and the process supervised by an oversight committee to be created by the Central government. The question that remains to be addressed is how to clean up the polluted soil.
The source of the contaminants near the Carbide factory is the chemical waste generated ever since the factory started operations in Bhopal. The wastes are highly toxic in nature and contain chlorobenzenes, dichlorobenzenes, lindane and PCBs — chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects and an entire range of systemic damage. These wastes were dumped both inside the factory premises and outside, in a landfill which has been leaking from 1981 onwards.
Besides the huge stockpile of toxic waste collected and stored in a warehouse on the factory premises, what also needs to be removed is hundreds of tons of chemicals that are persistent in nature — chemicals that retain their toxicity for hundreds of years in some cases.
Besides, heavy metals like mercury, chromium and nickel have been found in high concentration in samples drawn from places even three km from the now closed pesticide plant.
“The sad fact today is that the killer factory continues to leach poisons into the ground water,” said Satinath Sarangi, the founder of Sambhavana Trust Clinic and Bhopal Group for Information and Action.