Authorities in India have removed hundreds of tons of toxic waste from an Indian chemical plant that witnessed one of the world's deadliest gas leaks in 40 years.
In December, a court set a four-week deadline for waste disposal.
On Wednesday, toxic waste — about 337 tons — was transported from the Union Carbide plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal to an incinerator facility about 230 kilometers (143 miles) away.
Officials say it will take between three and nine months to process and destroy the waste, but activists have raised concerns about potential damage to the health of people in local communities at the new site.
Thousands of people He died In Bhopal in December 1984 after inhaling toxic gas leaking from the factory.
Since then, toxic substances have been present in the frozen plant, contaminating groundwater in the surrounding areas.
The toxic waste removed from the plant this week included five types of hazardous materials, including pesticide residues and “forever chemicals” left over from the manufacturing process. These chemicals got their name because they retain their toxic properties indefinitely.
For decades, these chemicals at the abandoned factory site have slowly seeped into the surrounding environment, posing a continuing health risk to people living in the vicinity.
A 2018 study by the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research revealed that high concentrations of metals and chemicals had contaminated groundwater in 42 residential areas near the plant.
After decades of inaction, the Madhya Pradesh High Court on December 3 set a four-week deadline for authorities to dispose of toxic waste from the site.
The court said that the authorities “remain in a state of stagnation despite the passage of 40 years.”
The process of transporting the waste began on Sunday when officials began packing it in leak-proof bags. These bags were then loaded onto 12 sealed trucks on Wednesday.
Officials said the waste was transported under strict security measures.
The Indian Express newspaper reported that there was an escort of police, ambulances, fire brigades and a rapid response team with the convoy of trucks carrying the waste.
Swatantra Kumar Singh, head of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department, told news agency PTI that initially, some of the waste will be burnt at the waste disposal unit in Pithampur and its remains examined for toxic residue.
He said that special arrangements have been made to ensure that the fumes emitted by the incinerator or the ash remaining after it do not pollute the air and water.
But activists and people living near the disposal site have been protesting the move.
They said a small amount of carbide plant waste was destroyed at the plant on a trial basis in 2015, Hindustan Times reported.
They said that the matter led to contamination of the soil and groundwater, as well as bodies of fresh water in neighboring villages.
Singh denied the allegations, saying burning toxic waste would not have “any negative impact” on nearby villages.
But Rachna Dhingra, from the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, told the BBC that transporting the waste would “create slow traffic in Bhopal” at the new site.
Over the years, officials have made several attempts to dispose of waste generated by the Bhopal plant, but they dropped their plans after facing resistance from activists.
In 2015, the India Pollution Control Board said toxic waste would be burned in Gujarat, but the plan was dropped after protests.
The council later identified sites in Hyderabad and Maharashtra as well, but faced similar resistance.
The Bhopal gas tragedy is one of the world's largest industrial disasters.
According to government estimates, about 3,500 people died within days of the gas leak and more than 15,000 in the years that followed.
But activists say the death toll is much higher. Victims still suffer from the side effects of the poisoning today.
In 2010, an Indian court convicted seven former factory managers, sentencing them to small fines and short prison sentences. But many victims and activists say justice has not yet been achieved, given the scale of the tragedy.
Union Carbide was an American company that was acquired by Dow Chemicals in 1999.
