Church hails U.S. lawmakers´ support of Bhopal gas victims

Church leaders have welcomed an appeal by U.S. Congress members to the Dow Chemical Company asking it to address the needs of victims of the world´s worst industrial disaster.

Memorial to those who died erected outside the now closed Union Carbide plant

More than 3,000 people were killed on Dec. 3 1984 in Bhopal, India, and some 8,000 within a week, after 42 tons of poisonous methyl isocyanate gas, a pesticide, escaped from a Union Carbide pesticide plant.

In all, about 500,000 people were exposed to potential lethal waste. An estimated 25,000 people are thought to have died over the past 25 years due to air, soil and water pollution.

Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide in 1999.

In mid-June, 27 members of Congress reportedly wrote to Andrew Liveris, chairman and chief executive of Dow Chemical, asking him to meet the survivors´ demands for medical and economic rehabilitation, and to clean up the soil and groundwater contamination in and around the factory site.

The Congress members also asked the company to send a representative to take part in court proceedings in India.

Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal, who heads the Catholic Church in the state, said the move was “quite late, but better than never.”

He welcomed the politicians´ recommendation as a “very positive step” in protecting survivors and said it signaled a renewed global understanding about their suffering.

Archbishop Cornelio said Dow Chemical had shirked its responsibility to remove thousands of tons of toxic waste accumulated at its Bhopal factory site.

The congressional initiative may help the victims get justice, he told UCA News.

A legal suit has been lodged with the Madhya Pradesh High Court against Dow Chemical and others demanding safe disposal of the toxic wastes.

Father Mathew Vattakuzhy, who heads a forum that coordinates the Catholic social services in the state, said the American gesture is “really good news and a welcome step.” The priest added that the disaster continues to haunt the victims´ second generation.

“Many children born after the disaster in the affected areas continue to suffer various mental and physical disorders,” he said. Problems would continue unless Dow Chemical or the Indian authorities dispose of the toxic waste, he stressed.

Father Michael Sebastian, who heads Bhopal archdiocese´s social work department, says waste disposal should be carried out urgently to protect future generations.

He said the Church had helped in the rescue and relief operation in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. However, this diminished after the government took control of the rehabilitation work and other NGOs joined the post-disaster settlement program. The Church, however, continued to provide education and to provide occasional medical treatment for the victims, the priest said.

Roy John, who says he saw the disaster unfold as a child, says the American gesture surprised him but was “a golden opportunity” for India´s Madhya Pradesh state and the federal government to give the victims “much delayed justice.”