Authorities in India have removed hundreds of tons of toxic waste from an Indian chemical industry that witnessed the world’s worst gas leak in 40 years.
In December, the court set a four-week deadline for the garbage to be disposed of.
On Wednesday, toxic waste – 337 tons – was taken from the Union Carbide factory in the central Indian city of Bhopal to an incinerator 230 kilometers (143 miles) away.
Officials say it will take between three to nine months to treat and destroy the waste, but activists have expressed concern about the potential damage to people’s health in communities in the new area.
Thousands of people he died in Bhopal in December 1984 after inhaling toxic gas that leaked from a factory.
Since then, toxic materials have been lying dormant in the mothballed industry, contaminating groundwater in surrounding areas.
The toxic waste removed from the factory this week includes five types of hazardous materials – including pesticide residues and “permanent chemicals” left behind in the manufacturing process. These chemicals get their name because they retain their toxic properties indefinitely.
Over the past decades, these chemicals from the abandoned factory have been slowly seeping into the environment, posing a constant health risk to people living in the surrounding areas.
A 2018 study by the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research revealed that high concentrations of metals and chemicals have contaminated groundwater in 42 locations near the plant.
After decades of inaction, the Madhya Pradesh High Court on 3 December set a four-week deadline for authorities to dispose of toxic waste at the site.
The court said the authorities “are still in a state of misconduct even after 40 years”.
The garbage removal program started on Sunday when officials started packing it in leak-proof bags. These bags were then loaded onto 12 closed trucks on Wednesday.
Officials said the waste was transported under tight security.
There were police escorts, ambulances, firemen and a rapid response team and a line of trucks carrying waste, reported the Indian Express newspaper.
Swatantra Kumar Singh, head of Bhopal’s gas relief and rehabilitation department, told PTI media that initially, some of the waste will be incinerated at the Pithampur landfill and the residue will be tested for toxic residues.
He said that special plans have been made to ensure that the smoke from the welding area or the ash left behind does not pollute the air and water.
But activists and people living near the dump were protesting against the move.
They said that a small amount of waste from the Carbide factory was destroyed in the factory in 2015, Hindustan Times reported.
It ended up polluting the soil, underground water as well as clean water bodies in nearby villages, they said.
Mr Singh denied the allegations, saying the burning of toxic waste would not have a “negative impact” on nearby villages.
But Rachna Dhingra, from the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, told the BBC World Service that the waste transfer would “create a slow Bhopal” in the new area.
Over the years, officials have made several attempts to dump waste at the Bhopal factory but abandoned their plans after clashes with activists.
In 2015, India’s pollution control board said toxic waste would be incinerated in Gujarat but the plan was withdrawn after protests.
The board later identified sites in the states of Hyderabad and Maharashtra, but faced similar resistance.
The Bhopal gas disaster is one of the worst industrial disasters in the world.
According to government estimates, about 3,500 people died within days of the gas leak and more than 15,000 in previous years.
But activists say the death toll is much higher. Victims continue to suffer from the ill effects of poisoning to this day.
In 2010, an Indian court convicted seven former industry executives, handing out small fines and short prison terms. But many victims and campaigners say justice has not been done, given the magnitude of the tragedy.
Union Carbide was an American company that was bought by Dow Chemicals in 1999.
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