Feature: The Bhopal disaster: the tragedy continues 25 years later

Twenty-five years ago a gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India created a horrendous environmental disaster and human tragedy, the effects of which are still being felt today.

At midnight on December 3, 1984 twenty-seven tons of lethal gases leaked from the company's pesticide factory, immediately killing 8,000 people and poisoning thousands of others.

The accidental leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, exposed more than 500,000 people to MIC and other deadly chemicals. Between 8,000 and 10,000 people died within 72 hours and 25,000 have since died from gas-related diseases since then.

Read the BBC reports and background stories on the disaster

Today 390 tonnes of toxic chemicals abandoned at the Union Carbide plant continue to pollute the ground water in the region and affects thousands residents of Bhopal who depend on it.

There are currently civil and criminal cases related to the disaster ongoing in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal, India against Union Carbide, now owned by Dow Chemical Company, with arrest warrants pending against Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the disaster.

Twenty-five years later over 150,000 people, including children of survivors, are suffering tremendously as a result of Dow's refusal to clean up the plant.

A new report release on Tuesday by the Bhopal Medical Appeal (BMA) and the local Sambhavna clinic, shows that there are still high levels of toxic chemicals in the drinking water supply in 15 communities near the old Union Carbide pesticide plant.

The new report “Analysis of Chemical Contaminants in Groundwater of Communities Surrounding UCIL Plant Site in Bhopal” is available at www.bhopal.org and www.studentsforbhopal.org

It includes testing results from as recently as June 2009, showing that the water in and around the Union Carbide factory site in Bhopal still contains extremely unsafe levels of persistent organic pollutants, solvents, nickel and other heavy metals.

It also documents high rates of birth defects, rapidly rising cancer rates, neurological damage, chaotic menstrual cycles and mental illness among people living near the plant.

More than two decades after the disaster. human rights, legal, environmental health and other experts are demanding that Dow Chemical, the current owner of Union Carbide, and the Indian Government, be held accountable for this atrocity.

Specifically the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal is demanding that:

• The Indian government clean up Bhopal now to prevent further spread of the toxins, and use the courts to get reimbursed by Dow
• Dow’s subsidiary, Union Carbide, show up in court to face trial in the ongoing criminal proceedings against them in India
• The Indian Government establish the “empowered commission” that they promised in August 2008 to address the health, environmental, social, and economic issues in Bhopal
• The Indian Government finish building pipelines to bring clean water to the people in and around Bhopal immediately

A day of action on December 3 to highlight the continuing tragedy of Bhopal will include mass rallies, symbolic “die-ins”, candle-lit vigils, concerts, protests and more.

Over 100 actions have been planned around the globe, from Bhopal to London, and San Francisco to Tel Aviv.