Thirty years after we must recognise that the Bhopal gas disaster had impacts far beyond the boundary of the ill-fated city and its people. Across the world, chemical and hazardous waste management was reinforced; worker-safety precautions mandated and legislations for environmental management strengthened. Bhopal made a difference in the way the world managed its industrial dangers. Perhaps it is because of this that we have not seen another Bhopal-like disaster in magnitude and horrific human devastation.
But this does not mean that work is over. In India, we certainly continue to see smaller industrial accidents - mini-Bhopals - in different parts of the country. We also have not fixed the problem of toxic contamination of our land and water. In fact, we have piles of hazardous waste that accumulates in many parts of the country, endangering lives. Worse, we do not have means or methods to remediate these toxic sites, and in all this we generate more and more hazardous waste.
Worse, in Bhopal, victims of the gas leak continue to be denied medical treatment. The hazardous waste left behind by Union Carbide continues to contaminate the groundwater and liability for pollution has not been fixed. The reasons for this failure need to be understood.
First, the tragedy of Bhopal is that there are too many institutions involved, but all with little interest in fixing the problem and all working at cross purposes. So there is movement, but no action.
For instance, the case on decontamination of the toxic waste on the factory site is being heard directly at the Supreme Court and the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. But directions go unheeded in spite (or because) of the number of agencies involved. The department of chemicals and petrochemicals is the nodal authority for the Bhopal disaster. At the state level, the nodal department is the department of Bhopal gas tragedy relief and rehabilitation. Then there is a task force for removal of toxic waste from the plant under the chairmanship of secretary, department of chemicals and petrochemicals. There is also an oversight committee to coordinate and monitor all activities at the Bhopal gas tragedy site relating to waste disposal, decontamination and remediation. The minister of the Union ministry of environment and forests chairs this committee. At the bottom of the rung, the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board and the Central Pollution Control Board are supposed to monitor the site and provide technical support for the decontamination work. The logjam is such that there is no one institution that can be held responsible and accountable for decontaminating the site.
In the case of medical relief, on paper all has been provided to ensure that people get timely and best treatment. A super-speciality hospital has been set up; treatment has been assured without payment; to ensure effective delivery the Supreme Court even set up two separate committees - one to monitor functioning of the medical system and the other to advise on what needed to be done for best care of the victims. The state government has a separate minister and department for gas relief; and even at the Centre, there is a clear mandate with the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers to oversee all affairs. Yet medical care is abysmal. Yet the victims continue to say that they do not even have water to drink. Clearly, everybody had the responsibility but nobody really cared to deliver.
Secondly, the issue of Bhopal and its aftermath itself has become toxic and tragic - nobody really wants to do anything about it. Over time, most residents of the city have moved away and beyond the disaster. The civil society groups that remain are intensely committed and driven by the injustice and lack of action. On the other hand, government institutions believe that nothing they do will be accepted as work well done. They have practically given up, but continue the pretense, as there is work to be done and money to be spent.
This is when the courts - apex, state and district - continue to try to provide justice. After the 1989 decision, which rewrote the history of jurisprudence by absolving corporate criminal activity on payment of compensation, the courts have directed for relief and rehabilitation. But in the polarised and extremely indifferent environment, even their directions have come to naught. This is partly because there is no clarity about what needs to be done and what can be done, given the past mess-ups.
Clearly, what needs to be done is to accept the mistakes of the past. So that these are not repeated. And so that we can find new answers to fix what is still broken in Bhopal. We cannot give up on the victims of the tragedy. This is not about our past, but our future.
The writer is at the Centre for Science and Environment
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