Authorities in India have removed hundreds of tons of toxic waste from an Indian chemical factory that witnessed the world’s deadliest gas leak 40 years ago.
In December, a court set a four-week deadline to dispose of the waste.
On Wednesday, the toxic waste — about 337 tons — was transported to an incineration facility about 230 kilometers (143 miles) from the Union Carbide factory in the central Indian city of Bhopal.
Officials say it will take three to nine months to treat and dispose of the waste, but activists have raised concerns about the potential harm to the health of people in communities at the new site.
Thousands of people died After inhaling toxic gas from a factory leak in December 1984 in Bhopal.
Since then, toxic materials have been lying in the mothballed factory, contaminating the groundwater in the surrounding areas.
The toxic waste being cleaned up from the factory this week included five types of hazardous materials – including pesticide residues and “forever chemicals” left over from its manufacturing process. These chemicals got this name because they retain their toxic properties indefinitely.
For decades, these chemicals had been slowly seeping into the surrounding environment at the site of the abandoned factory, posing a constant health hazard to people living nearby.
A 2018 study by the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research found that high concentrations of metals and chemicals had contaminated the groundwater in 42 residential areas near the factory.
After decades of inaction, the Madhya Pradesh state high court on December 3 set a four-week deadline for authorities to dispose of toxic waste from the site.
The court said the authorities “are still in a state of stagnation even after 40 years”.
The process of moving the waste began on Sunday when officials started packing it in leak-proof bags. The bags were then loaded onto 12 sealed trucks on Wednesday.
Officials said the waste was transported under strict security measures.
According to the Indian Express newspaper, there were police security forces, ambulances, the fire brigade and a quick response team accompanying the convoy of trucks carrying the waste.
Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department Head Swatantra Kumar Singh told PTI news agency that initially some of the waste will be incinerated at a disposal unit in Pithampur and the residue will be tested for toxic residues.
He said that special arrangements have been made to ensure that the burning fumes or ash left behind does not pollute the air and water.
But workers and people living near the disposal site are protesting against the move.
He said a small amount of waste from the carbide factory was disposed of at the plant on a trial basis in 2015, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
He said it contaminated the soil, groundwater as well as fresh water bodies in nearby villages.
Mr. Singh has denied these claims, saying that the burning of toxic waste would have “no negative impact” on nearby villages.
But Rachna Dhingra of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal told the BBC World Service that moving the waste would create a “slow Bhopal” at the new site.
Over the years, authorities made several attempts to dispose of the Bhopal factory’s waste but abandoned the plan after facing resistance from workers.
In 2015, India’s Pollution Control Board said that toxic waste would be incinerated in Gujarat, but the plan was shelved after protests.
The board later identified sites in the states of Hyderabad and Maharashtra as well, but faced similar resistance.
The Bhopal gas disaster is one of the biggest industrial disasters in the world.
According to government estimates, about 3,500 people died in the 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 are still suffering from the ill effects of poisoning.
In 2010, an Indian court convicted seven former plant managers and sentenced them to minor fines and short prison terms. But many victims and campaigners say justice has yet to be served given the enormity of the tragedy.
Union Carbide was an American company that was purchased by Dow Chemicals in 1999.