Disasters Seconds From Disaster Bhopal Nightmare Documentary

Disasters Seconds From Disaster Bhopal Nightmare Documentary

This December 3rd marks the 20th anniversary of the world's worst industrial disaster. Twenty years later, the legacy of tragedy continues. This is a story of the struggle of ordinary people asserting their basic human rights in the face of the power and greed of a giant multinational corporation.
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Skulls discarded after research at the Hamidia Hospital in Bhopal. Medical experts believe that the gas inhaled by the people of Bhopal may have affected the brain.
This feature was reserached and written by Lisa McDonald, a freelance journalist.

When I was first asked to cover this story I was hesitant. I wondered why, twenty years later, anyone would be interested in rehashing an industrial disaster story. The more I researched the details of the event however, and the plight of its survivors, the more I realized just how important it still is today.

This 3rd of December, it will have been 20 years since the leak at the Union Carbide pesticide factory killed so many thousands. And the death toll continues to rise. In Bhopal, India, there will be no holiday sentiment this December. People will be marching and making speeches. They will be gathering in the streets, holding hands and weeping for the loss of loved ones. They will be angry and demanding justice. But most of all, people will be remembering. They will be remembering a night that is impossible to forget.

The night of the apocalypse

It was just after midnight, December 3rd, 1984. The night sky was clear and blessed by stars. Hundreds had gathered for the Sunday evening mushaira in the Spices Square. This was a traditional night dedicated to song and poetry long celebrated in Bhopal. The crowd listened intently as the Urdu poets sang of suffering and joy, of life and death, and of the soul eternal. Elsewhere, marriage ceremonies were taking place in all four corners of the city. The bars and restaurants were filled with music and the sounds of celebration. It was a night of festivities, a night to rejoice.

In contrast to this, trouble was brewing at the Union Carbide Corporation's pesticide plant just hundreds of yards away. The air inside the factory was charged with panic and fear. It had come to the attention of the under-trained staff that there was a potentially catastrophic leak in one of the tanks. This tank was holding up to 42 tons of lethal gases. Within minutes, a tremendous explosive reaction would cause a deadly hurricane of gases to spill out over the city of Bhopal. Its population of over half a million people would be subjected to one of the most horrific events in the history of industrial disasters. The apocalypse had begun.

The deadly gases slipped unnoticed through the open windows and doors of the city. For the many that were sound asleep in bed, the poison that they breathed in as they slept ensured that they would never wake again. The late-night revelers however, had the misfortune to be conscious when the terror hit. But even by the time they had caught sight of that enormous poisonous cloud moving towards them, it was already too late. The busy restaurants and cafes, the squares and parks – they had all just minutes before been filled with the sounds of poetry, music and laughter – now they were suddenly silent. Frighteningly silent. The enemy had infiltrated, and quickly stifled the cries of its victims. The gases had floated in like a ghost on the evening breeze, immediately constricting people's throats and choking their lungs to the point of bursting. Their bodies contorted and writhed in pain, their pupils were swollen and burning. What was this evil that had descended upon them? No one knew. Most died before they could even reach their homes or hospitals. Those who did manage to make it to a hospital died there. The dead and dying were everywhere! There were not enough doctors, and no one from Union Carbide would give any information on the nature of the toxins concerned, making treatment impossible anyway. The unspeakable was happening!

By the third day, an estimated 8000 people had died from direct toxic exposure; another 500,000 people had been injured. Twenty years later, conservative figures are that at least 20,000 people have died as a result of this disaster. There is now a third generation of victims – the children of parents born after the gas leak – who also suffers from life-threatening abnormalities. They suffer from acute breathlessness, brain damage, menstrual chaos, loss of immunity, cancer and tuberculosis. But far from receiving sympathy or assistance from those responsible, the survivors are still struggling for even the most basic medical aid, let alone economic and social support. The legacy of disaster continues.