Toxic Waste of Bhopal - Is it a boomerang?

Two probable questions you can expect for quiz competition in (lower/upper) primary or high schools in India are 'Which chemical caused Bhopal Gas Tragedy?', 'Chemicals from which company resulted in Bhopal Gas tragedy'. Unfortunately school kids are yet to hear the question 'Who cleaned up the graveyard of Bhopal'?

Latest in the series, with the withdrawal of German firm - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH - in signing a contract for disposing 350 tonnes contaminated soil, citing reasons like uncertainties etc People of Bhopal are forced to continue their day to day life with these toxic substances. Not allowing to forget, even for a moment, what happened at the night of 2-3 December, 1984.

According to GIZ press release, "After three months of contract negotiations between the Indian Government and GIZ for the disposal of 350 tonnes of soil contaminated with pesticides from Bhopal, GIZ withdrew its waste disposal offer today....negotiations could not be settled during that time, and therefore, the uncertainties grew on both sides. This uncertainty extended to the German public. Hazardous waste disposal through GIZ is no longer an option."

Conclusion

Well, what governments, both federal and state governments are going to do now? It’s almost close to three decades, every second we are wasting more and more chemicals will go deep in to the soil to underground water channels to wells, rivers etc. Giving compensation alone won't solve the problem, it is important to clean the site as well.

Sajeev.

Reference

1. GIZ Press release