`Union Carbide Corporation, Solar Evaporation Pond Become Garbage Dumping Sites’ Landfill Site; Gas Survivors Blame BMC

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Despite National Green Tribunal’s directive, the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) plant site including the Solar Evaporation Pond (SEP) has turned into a garbage dumping site.

Bhopal gas tragedy survivors have blamed Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) for intentionally dumping garbage to level the SEP. The BMC, however, said it removed the garbage dumped by residents.

The NGT mandated the erection of reinforced boundary fencing around the SEP and the unguarded areas of UCC plant. It had asked Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) and the state government to immediately secure the unguarded areas of the former UCC plant.

“All potentially hazardous zones, buried waste pits and unlined evaporation ponds should remain cordoned off with strict buffer zones,” NGT had said.

"BMC is dumping garbage intentionally to fill up Solar Evaporation Pond. Builders too, want levelling and filling of the SEP. We filed a petition in NGT, which had ordered fencing of the entire area including the SEP.

Intentionally, it is being done so that legally and technically, no one can direct chemical waste remediation, which involves neutralising, isolating or destroying hazardous pollutants in soil, water, or industrial by-products.

In the NGT, BMC only gives assurance; practically, it dumps garbage to level the SEP and other areas," Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA) said.

Ram Ratan Lohiya, BMC AHO, Zone-17, said, "We have removed the garbage that was dumped by residents. Even meat traders dumped animal waste at the SEP site. We have taken the garbage to the Adampur landfill site."