A little under 25 years ago, before midnight on December 2nd 1984, a major venting of lethal methyl isocyanate occurred at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. Thousands were killed, and toxic waste continues to contaminate the local water supply to this day. To mark the anniversary and to "dispel fears" about the plant, state authorities have decided to throw the site open to tourists for a week; a move that has provoked outrage among local survivors. As publicity stunts go, it is in epicly poor taste.

The Indian Express report the following justification from a minister and ex-minister:

"We will put up an exhibition highlighting the work done by the government and throw open the doors to the public for a week," Minister for Gas Tragedy (Relief and Rehabilitation) Babulal Gaur told The Sunday Express.

[...]

"The government hopes that allowing people to visit the site would satisfy their curiosity and remove misconceptions that things at the plant have been kept under wraps," said former chief minister Gaur.

"I have visited the site numerous times and handled the waste on several occasions. There’s nothing to worry," he added.

The Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh made a similar remark while visiting the factory recently, prompting angry survivors to burn effigies of him. The Times of India report:

"I held the toxic waste in my hand. I'm still alive and not coughing." Later he said the "truth" about the gas tragedy and how it occurred were "extremely complex'' and "uncomfortable". He also advised 25 years after the tragedy, it was time to move on.

To understand just how insensitive these remarks were, we need to put them in context. That hundreds of tons of toxic waste remain at the site, leaking into local water supplies and contaminating drinking water up to several kilometres away is in itself a horrendous state of affairs; and many people werecoughing, or worse. The raw facts of the aftermath hint at the scale of the disaster:

"Thousands of people had succumbed by the morning hours. There were mass funerals and mass cremations as well as disposal of bodies in the Narmada river. 170,000 people were treated at hospitals and temporary dispensaries. 2,000 buffalo, goats, and other animals were collected and buried. Within a few days, leaves on trees yellowed and fell off. Supplies, including food, became scarce owing to suppliers' safety fears. Fishing was prohibited as well, which caused further supply shortages"

Around 20,000 dead, and perhaps ten times as many permanently injured, and that was just the aftermath. The long term effects of local contamination may have been dire. The exact scale of the ongoing health problems has been hard to measure, apparently in part due to a lack of political will-power, but local victims like Hamida Bi claim:

"We suffer from chronic pulmonary diseases, fight cancer and have physically challenged children."

Only in 2009 are the long-term health effects of the disaster being comprehensively studied, by the Indian Council of Medical Research.

While there may be no conclusive scientific evidence for the scale of problems arising from contamination in 2009, illness is still being reported, and the fact remains that the site is filled with toxic waste. Local water supplies are heavily contaminated with chemicals that killed or maimed a substantial percentage of the local population (a problem which is spreading across India as the country rapidly industrializes). It is a shocking state of affairs; and one which officials seem unwilling to grasp.

Opening the plant to the public for a week will not reassure the local population - what they want is healthcare, a clean-up operation, and reassurance that the government take the disaster seriously and will never let anything like it happen again.