BHOPAL, India — On the 15th of June 2005, Greenpeace decided to boycott the 'above-surface containment' of the stockpiles of toxic chemicals lying inside the Union Carbide factory. We boycotted the process in protest against the complete lack of transparency, and the dubious nature of the exercise itself. The Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) and the Bhopal Gas Relief Cell, neither of whom have ever been involved in such an exercise before, were overseeing this operation.
Kids in Bhopal check out the clean up guidelines for workers handling hazardous material at the Kiosk.
When the MPPCB first announced their plans for this, the first
of a three-phase exercise for cleaning up the toxic stockpiles, we
were guarded in our response - of course we wanted the site cleaned
up, but many important questions were not being answered: How
exactly would the government clean up these highly toxic wastes?
What do they intend to do with them once 'contained'? Will they
follow the best practices for worker and community safety? Who will
pay for this - surely not the taxpayers? Will the bill be sent to
Dow Chemicals as it should be?
Some of the questions were answered in the three weeks that
Greenpeace activists were camping outside the Carbide site, but
none of them satisfactorily.
To begin with, the scope of the exercise itself was severely
limited -instead of doing a full containment, the MPPCB was
carrying out an exercise to 'repack' the spilled chemicals and move
them to a shed, ostensibly to protect these chemicals from exposure
to the monsoon. The shed itself was little more than an old and
dilapidated structure, and a hastily-completed plastering job did
little to disguise the gaping cracks in the walls and roof.
Worse, we discovered that the daily wagers employed to prepare
the shed for the repacking exercise were not using any protective
equipment, even though they were directly exposed to the chemicals!
There was no information forthcoming from any of the authorities
about the standards that would be followed by the private company
contracted to do the work. Even when the MPPCB Chairperson was
confronted with footage of this workers plastering a wall of
abominable working conditions, he abdicated responsibility
On the 9th of June, we set up the Bhopal Disaster Site Clean-up
Workers' Safety Centre - a kiosk outside the Carbide factory gates
- to raise awareness amongst the authorities and local population
on the need for Personal Protective Equipment for all workers at
the site. Greenpeace also submitted protocols developed by our
science unit to the government, to ensure that the best
international standards are followed for this, the first stage of
the containment operation.
For the next few days, we were kept on tenterhooks, receiving
good news and bad in equal measure. We were told we'd be given
permission to monitor the process, then the permission was revoked
at the last possible minute. We were told that Ramky Enviro Science
(the company undertaking the exercise), following our
demonstrations at the site, had decided to purchase Personal
Protective Equipment, and that the MPPCB would ensure that we
participated in a preliminary meeting to satisfy our reservations
about the standards the company was going to follow. But again,
hours before the repacking exercise began, the authorities reneged
on their promises and did not allow any independent scientific
experts to monitor their proceedings. This is a breach of
international protocols for any containment exercise. Subsequent
photographs of the containment exercise (taken by press
photographers) have confirmed our worst fears - the standards being
followed by the company are far from adequate.
Greenpeace believes that the containment of chemicals at the
Bhopal could and should have been done in a manner that would set
the precedent for how similar hazardous waste sites are treated in
India. Therefore, the clean up of the Bhopal site must be done to
the highest international standards.
By boycotting the process, we have voiced our strongest
criticism of the manner in which the first phase of the exercise
was carried out and crucial questions that the authorities need to
answer.
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