From Sathyu’s Introduction to Bhopal for Young People
The pesticide factory that leaked the poisonous gases on that terrible night was shut down soon after. But the factory continues to poison the land and the groundwater and the people living in its neighbourhood. In the 14 years that the factory produced pesticides, it also produced thousands of tons of waste, much of which is also poisonous. Documents from the corporation’s records show that Carbide’s bosses knew that the soil and groundwater around the factory would be poisoned because of pesticide production. These records also show that in 1989 – five years after the disaster – when Union Carbide’s scientists drew samples of water from under the ground in and around the factory, they found that all the fish they kept in the water (diluted several times over) died in a short while. But the scientists and the bosses of the corporation did not give this information to people who were already settled there and drawing groundwater through handpumps. What the corporation did, was to dismantle the factory, sell out whatever could be sold, and just upped and left.
