Union Carbide factory waste disposal to proceed with public confidence secured
Bhopal: Amid the ongoing protest in Pitampur against disposal of Bhopal’s Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) unit waste, Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary Anurag Jain stressed that the incineration process will begin withsecuring public confidence. Speaking with media persons at the secretariat here, Jain urged them to highlight that the truth about the transfer of the factory’s waste from Bhopal to Pithampur and its incineration at a specific plant there is conveyed to the public. “The decision to shift the chemical waste, which was stored in a secured shed at the premises of UCIL under the supervision of the MP Pollution Control Board in 2005, was carried out by the state government in accordance with the directions issued by the MP High Court on December 3, 2024, in a PIL filed by an NGO in 2004,” emphasized the Chief Secretary. Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd is the only facility in the state for hazardous waste disposal, located in the Pithampur industrial area in Dhar district.
The CS tried to address every possible issue and query regarding the disposal of waste in Pithampur during the media interaction. “In 2013, a trial run for the incineration of 10 metric tons of similar waste transferred from Hindustan Insecticide Limited Kochi (Kerala) at TSDF facility Pithampur was conducted successfully by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) after the SC directions,” he said. Another trial run was conducted in 2015 following the SC’s directions in which 10 metric tons of waste from UCIL, Bhopal was disposed of successfully by the CPCB at the same plant in Pithampur, he further said. Jain highlighted that the disposal process has undergone extensive testing by central institutions such as NEERI (Nagpur), NGRI (Hyderabad), IICT, and the CPCB. Based on their reports submitted to the SC, directions were issued to the trial runs, the CS said. According to these reports, there is no evidence to suggest that the disposal of such waste has caused any harm to the environment, Jain said. Subsequently, the SC instructed that the waste be disposed of without further delay, he said. He said three aspects were investigated in villages near the disposal facility: health tests, crop productivity, and water quality. The findings showed negligible impact and no negative results. In response to a query, the CS said that the reports of the trial runs would be made public to inform people about the incineration of the waste. The incineration process will be carried out using safe technologies under continuous monitoring of the teams of the CPCB and MPPCB to ensure public and environmental safety, he said.
The CS explained that about 358 metric tons of chemical waste had been recovered from the UCIL, and the harmful effects were significantly diminished from them. “Over 60% of the waste is local soil, while the rest includes 7-naphthol, reactor residues, and semi-processed pesticide waste, whose toxicity experts believe fades within 25 years”, he added. Therefore, it is clear that 40 years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the harmful effects are significantly dismissed from the waste, he further added. The waste was transported on Wednesday from the defunct UCIL plant to Pithampur, located 30 km from Indore, amid tight security. It was carried in 12 sealed container trucks via a ‘green corridor,’ in compliance with court directions. A protest erupted in Pithampur during a call for bandh on Friday in which two demonstrators tried to immolate themselves. Commissioner of the Public Relations Department Dr Sudam Khade was present during the media discussion.
