Bhopal gas tragedy site has 336 tonnes of hazardous waste, says govt

A deadly gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal in 1984 killed over 3,000 people and maimed thousands of others. Around 336 tonnes of hazardous waste is lying in the premises of Union Carbide India Limited.

Around 336 tonnes of hazardous waste is lying in the premises of Union Carbide India Limited, the site of the infamous 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, the government said on Tuesday.

Environment minister Anil Madhav Dave, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, said the government has neither sought any allocation of funds from department of expenditure nor any allocation has been made for disposal of toxic waste.

“Approximately 336 tonnes of hazardous waste is lying in the premises of erstwhile UCIL, Bhopal,” Dave said.

He said the central government has taken all measures for safe and speedy disposal of the toxic waste which include assessment of the waste, evaluation of toxicity, safe packaging and storing of waste at the site, identification of appropriate technology for disposal, trial disposal of 10 tonnes of waste and formulation of procurement framework.

Dave in another written reply on March 20 had said that the government has decided to dispose of safely the hazardous waste from the UCIL.

He had said trial incineration of 10 tonnes of actual UCIL waste was carried out at common hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facility (TSDF) in Pithampur in Indore from August 13-18, 2015 under the supervision of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board and the environment ministry.

“The CPCB has reported that all the monitored parameters of the incinerated waste complied with the prescribed parameters of common hazardous waste incinerator as prescribed under schedule II of the Environment ( Protection) Rules, 1986 notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

“Ambient air quality around incinerator was found to be within the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for monitored parameters namely, PM10, SOx, NOx, arsenic, lead and benzene,” he had said.

Thirty-two years ago, a deadly gas leak at the Union Carbide plant killed over 3,000 people and maimed thousands of others in Bhopal.