20 years later, poison still in air

Union Carbide India Limited was responsible for cleaning up the site. The BBC team in Bhopal took a sample of drinking water from a well near the site. ‘‘It had levels of contamination 500 times higher than the maximum limits recommended by the WHO,’’ the report claimed. ‘‘The locals who drink this water every day are exposing themselves to a substantial chemical hazard associated, over time, with liver and kidney damage,’’ it added.

According to the report, the Union Carbide disputed the test results saying, when it handed the site back in 1998 it ‘‘found no evidence of groundwater contamination.’’ When the company was presented with details of the chemicals they had found, it said it was ‘‘not aware of any evidence to support such claims,’’ according to the report.

But there are still thousands of tons of toxic waste on the abandoned and dilapidated site, lying in piles exposed to the weather, the BBC claimed.

The BBC team found pools of mercury lying on the ground, skips full of poisonous material and in some sheds, chemical waste in bags that was still highly dangerous. The BBC reporter said: ‘‘In one building at the site, the atmosphere was so poisonous that I could barely breathe.’’ When it rains — especially in the monsoon season — rainwater washes these chemicals into puddles, streams and eventually into the ground water, the reporter said.

‘‘Unsurprisingly, the wells have become contaminated. But people drink from them all the same. Those who do, complain of a pattern of symptoms, including pains in the stomach, headaches, anaemia, and gynaecological problems,’’ the report said.

Although they know the water is unclean, they say they have no other source to drink from, it added.