On 20 July the Supreme Court of India ordered the government to release the remaining compensation owed the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak from Union Carbide’s pesticides factory. The cloud of vaporised methyl isocyanate caused the world’s worst industrial disaster, leaving some 20,000 people dead, 120,000 chronically ill, and groundwater poisoned to this day. The original compensation paid by Union Carbide to the Indian government in 1989 amounted to $470 million, but only a fraction has been paid out to community residents, with the rest tied up in court by disputes over the status of victims. The court ordered Bhopal’s welfare commission to supervise the payments to residents and report back in two months.
Victims are also seeking further compensation from Dow Chemical (which bought Union Carbide in 1999), saying the original payment was totally inadequate, and the Indian government continues to pursue criminal charges against former Union Carbide Chair Warren Anderson.
December 2004 will mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster, and any compensation victims have received has been eaten up by the cost of health care.
www.bhopal.org
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 65, September 2004, page 18]