Indian government initiates clean up survey - Greenpeace demands Dow must pay
On the 20th anniversary of the world's worst industrial disaster which resulted in nearly 20,000 deaths (1), the federal government in the Bhopal area has called for a survey of the site to access the extent of the contamination. Greenpeace is calling on Dow Chemicals to take responsibility for the disaster by funding the clean up of the still highly contaminated site and to aid the thousands of people still suffering the effects of the accident.
"While we welcome the announcement that the Indian government wants to survey the Bhopal site, Greenpeace believes that after 20 years this is the slowest first step in history. We call on Dow Chemicals to face up to their responsibilities and fund the clean up and the Indian government to immediately commit itself to urgent measures of securing the site and providing clean drinking water to the survivors," said Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace campaigner in Bhopal.
Today and tomorrow will see activists across the globe commemorating the disaster. In Switzerland tomorrow, Greenpeace activists will be delivering an exact replica of the memorial statue that stands in Bhopal to Dow's European head quarters to demand justice for the people of Bhopal. In India there will be candlelight vigils in seven cities, including Bhopal organised by Greenpeace and other activists.
Twenty years after the devastating accident at Bhopal the site still remains contaminated with highly toxic chemicals. There is lax security around the site and children regularly play in the area. As well as having contamination from the initial leak the Bhopal site also now bears a deadly toxic legacy from years of routine plant operations. Dangerous chemicals have spread throughout the local environment, even reaching the local drinking water supply. A 1999 study by Greenpeace found local ground water supplies to be highly contaminated with a cocktail of dangerous chemicals.
Only last month Greenpeace brought together an independent team of decontamination experts at a symposium on how to initiate the Bhopal clean up. Their recommendations included:
- cleaning of the surrounding areas ground water using internationally recommended standards
- urgent need to secure the site from the public
- a recommendation that the site should not be transformed into a landfill or any other type of long-term storage of hazardous waste
- proposed shipment of stockpiled chemicals and other hazardous waste from India to developed countries for treatment.
Tomorrow, 3rd Dec, there will be a seminar in Brussels on Bhopal and corporate accountability where Gerd Leipold, Greenpeace International Executive Director will state: "In an increasingly globalised world, there is a need for corporations like DOW to use consistent standards around the world and take responsibility for their operations. If this disaster had happened in Europe or the US, the site would have been cleaned and the people fully compensated. We demand that DOW takes full responsibility for the horrendous disaster in Bhopal."
Greenpeace and International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) (2) are demanding that DOW, the multinational chemical leader, pays for the health treatment of the survivors, cleans up the large stockpiles of dangerous poisons left behind at the factory site since the disaster and cleans up the contaminated underground water. They are also calling for international corporate accountability legislation to make sure disasters like Bhopal never happen again.
Notes to editors:
(1) Forty tons of lethal gases leaked from Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal on the night of December 3rd 1984 resulted in up to 20,000 people being killed and leaving 120,000 chronically ill. In February 2001, Union Carbide (UC), the owners of the factory at the time, merged with DOW Chemical Company and became a wholly owned subsidiary of DOW.
(2)www.bhopal.net
For more information please contact:
Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace campaigner in Bhopal, +91-98-45535418
Zeina Al-Hajj, Greenpeace International Toxics Campaign, m +31(0)653128904
Photos of Bhopal including some taken this year by a Greenpeace team are available from Greenpeace UK press office on ++207 865 8255
