Toxic waste removed from Union carbide factory after 40 years

Indian authorities have removed hundreds of tons of toxic waste from an Indian chemical plant that witnessed one of the world’s deadliest gas leaks 40 years ago.

In December, the court set a four-week deadline for waste disposal.

On Wednesday, toxic waste – about 337 tons – was transported from the Union Carbide plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal to an incinerator about 230 km (143 miles) away.

It will take three to nine months to process and destroy the waste.

Thousands of people died in December 1984, after inhaling poisonous gas, the plant leaked.

Since then, the toxic material has been lying on the preserved plant, contaminating the groundwater in the surrounding areas.

The toxic waste removed from the factory this week included five types of hazardous materials – including pesticide residues and “perpetual chemicals” left over from the manufacturing process. These chemicals get their name because they retain their toxic properties indefinitely.

For decades, these chemicals on the site of the abandoned factory have slowly seeped into the environment, creating a constant health hazard for people living nearby.

A 2018 study by the Indian Institute of Toxicology found that high concentrations of metals and chemicals had contaminated groundwater in 42 residential areas near the factory.

After decades of inaction, the Madhya Pradesh High Court on December 3 set a four-week deadline for authorities to dispose of the toxic waste.

The court said the authorities “are still in a state of inertia despite 40 years”.

The process of moving the garbage began on Sunday, when officials began packing it in airtight bags. The bags were then loaded into 12 sealed trucks on Wednesday.

Officials said the waste was transported under heightened security measures.

The convoy of trucks carrying the waste had a police escort, ambulances, fire brigades and an emergency response team, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

Swatantra Kumar Singh, head of Bhopal’s disaster relief and rehabilitation department, told news agency PTI that initially some waste would be incinerated in a disposal system in Pitampura and the residue would be tested for toxic residues.

He said that special measures were taken to ensure that the fumes from burning the furnace or the ash left behind did not pollute the air and water.

However, activists and people who live near the landfill are protesting against this move.

They said a small amount of waste from the Carbide plant was destroyed at the facility in 2015, the Hindustan Times reported.

According to them, this resulted in the contamination of soil, groundwater, and fresh water bodies in nearby villages.

But Mr Singh denied the claims.

He said the burning of toxic waste would not have a “negative impact” on nearby villages.

Over the years, officials have made several attempts to dispose of waste from the Bhopal factory, but abandoned their plans after facing opposition from activists.

In 2015, India’s pollution control board said toxic waste would be incinerated in Gujarat, but the plan was scrapped after protests.

Later, the board also identified sites in the states of Hyderabad and Maharashtra, but faced similar resistance.

The gas tragedy in Bhopal is one of the biggest industrial disasters in the world.

According to government estimates, about 3,500 people died in the days after the gas leak and more than 15,000 in the following years.

But activists say that the dead are much more. The victims continue to suffer from the side effects of the poisoning today.

In 2010, an Indian court found seven former plant managers guilty, with small fines and short prison terms. But many victims and campaigners say justice has yet to be served given the scale of the tragedy.

Union Carbide was an American company that Dow Chemicals bought in 1999.