and now - The Water

But what I reported on 3^rd Sept post (The Night of the Explosion) was just the beginning. Many of you reading this will not know about the pollution of the groundwater, sometimes dubbed “Bhopal’s Second Disaster”.

For years before 1984, the company was dumping toxic wastes around the factory site in inadequate containers.  In an affidavit to the New York court in 1999, one worker said that, since 1969, quantities of solvents, pesticides, by-products etc were dumped in and  around the site.

Despite warnings, the company built several large waste evaporation ponds as this picture by Andy Spyra shows. There were warnings and rumours and mysterious deaths of livestock; cattle died after drinking from the waste ponds. UCC denied any responsibility but unease grew as any land onto which the ponds overflowed had a drastic decline in fertility. Some years later, an increase in births of damaged babies was noticed.

 

copied from the Bhopal Marathon – picture by Andy Spyra

After the incident the site was abandoned to the elements and more containers of chemicals rusted or broke down spilling contents over the ground. With every rainy season these chemicals have been washed through the soil into the groundwater aquifers from where it has been pumped up for drinking, washing, cooking etc, even for children to splash around in.

Even though the local authority of Madhya Pradesh provides a limited number of tankers of water it can be spasmodic and does not reach all the people with affected water supplies. And a couple of years ago there was an ecoli scare from even that water.

It is estimated that over 100,000 people are chronically sick from the effects of that night and in addition 30,000 are ill from polluted water, including second and third generation children. Local campaigners estimate that about 500,000 people live in the area of northern Bhopal affected and that some 90+% are affected to a greater or lesser extent.

So what is in the water? Well, actually we don’t know with 100% accuracy, despite many tests including mass spectrometry. In fact UCC and now Dow Chemical refuse to disclose the information citing commercial confidence. They also will not list the possible gasses and compounds that could have been created by chemical reactions during the explosion

In 1989, UCC carried out some simple tests by taking samples of groundwater and also adding soil samples to clean water. Fish were placed in the containers. There was “100% mortality”, ie all the fish died! It was noted at the time that both types of sample were heavily contaminated with both naphthol and naphthalene*. Despite the dangers to health that both of these present, UCC did not issue any health warnings, and, in fact denied it,

* Naphthol can lead to abdominal pain, convulsions, diarrhoea and vomiting while naphthalene can cause anaemia, cataracts, retinal damage, liver damage, brain damage and possibly cancer.

In 1989 tests were carried out. The State Pollution Control Board (PCB) requested the National Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) despite that fact that it had almost no experience in this type of research. About the same time UCIL decided to conduct studies and internal memos show it found large scale contamination. UCIL offered to guide NEERI and in early 1990 the subsequent report found no contamination! This greatly pleased UCC. We can only speculate about the quality and accuracy of the published result.

However, in 1990 a further study was conducted by the Bhopal State Research Laboratory (BSRL), working with an independent USA laboratory, which found major contamination in lake sediment with pthalates, i-napthalene, benzene, other aromatic hydrocarbons and organochlorides including di- and tri-chlorobenzenes. Which caused an angry response from UCC at their AGM and in writing, see http://www.bhopalmarathon.org/letter-of-may-16-1990-from-subimal-bose-to-babu-lal-gaur/ Despite these findings being more in line with their own internal report, a fact not mentioned in the letter.

“During the monsoon, the areas receive rainfall, part of which moves out as surface run-off and the remaining percolates into the soil. The movement of the soil contaminates with surface run-off and water percolating under the surface is a matter of great concern in view of the environmental hazard potential associated with organic contaminants.”

So why the differences? UCC’s own study took samples from within the walls of the factory site. The NEERI and BSRL samples were taken from in and around the waste ‘lakes’, some 400 metres away from the factory site. The BSRL samples included sediment from the lakes, soil from around the lakes and samples from a well.

The Impact?:

 

Rehana lives near one of the ‘lakes’ where the locals jointly built a well. She was boorn in 1997 without a thumb on her left hand. Her growth is retarded, her mind weak, her vision poor, she is plagued by rashes and often breathless.

There are many children suffering similarly and many more waiting to be born.

 

 

 And now - the Promise

 

The Soul of Sambhavna

And now for the good news – at least some of it.

I went to Sambhavna in Bhopal in August 2011. Over the years since 1984 I have remembered the explosion in Bhopal, I don’t know why, but it has often popped into my consciousness over the years when some news report sneaked out. In early 2010 I was looking for a greater challenge than a few clients in Warwick and out of a copy of New Internationalist fell a leaflet for the Bhopal Medical Appeal (BMA), a UK charity.

The BMA was formed in 1994 When a group of concerned individuals placed an advert in the Guardian, a UK daily newspaper, on the date of the 10^th anniversary. Within a week enough was raised to purchase a building in Bhopal and create the Sambhavna Trust Clinic.

It was the fourth attempt by volunteer survivor organisations in Bhopal to set up a medical centre. Both state and national government in India had ignored the recommendations of the International Medical Commission on Bhopal (ICMB). It was 1996, less than two years after that advert, that the clinic opened to local people. One person, crucial to its creation, was Sathyu Sarangi, mentioned in a previous blog was appointed managing trustee, a post he still fills. It moved to its current location in 2006.

The whole emphasis was on the possibility of healing with compassion. One meaning of the word Sambhavna is ‘possibility’. A beacon of light appeared as there was still much despair in the community – still suffering.

Despite being a tiny prick in the magnitude of the problems – even today there are over 100,000 survivors still chronically ill – it represented a truly local and ‘people first’ approach and proved it was possible to evolve simple, safe, effective, ethical and participatory treatments, including monitoring and research. To date some 45,000 people have passed through its doors and probably a similar number have benefited from the outreach programmes and health initiatives. And Sambhavna continues to innovate to bring new ideas to treatment and support.

The ICMB had seen an important role for community clinics in discouraging expensive drug treatments with potentially harmful side effects over the long-term. It was already anticipated that some survivors would need to be on some form of medication for the remainder of their lives. Though they could not see beyond allopathic approaches.

The doctors at Sambhavna could, however, and wanted to use natural and traditional Ayurveda approaches including yoga, massage (panchkarma) diet and meditation as part of their healing methods. So they set up a centre where the allopathic and traditional could work side-by-side. It is worth noting, for the non-Indian readers, that all doctors in India must train in the standard modern systems and THEN go on to study Ayurveda.

Even today the four doctors* will still share their knowledge and skills and the hi-tech pathology lab serves them all as does the pharmacy where the staff distribute allopathic medicine and herbal remedies.

Almost all of the herbal treatments are grown within the acre or so (about half a hectare) of garden and produced in the adjacent small manufacturing unit. There is a walk around the garden on my youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvDpVtB_3ZM

The garden staff are experts in their field and can often be seen giving advice to patients on growing their own plants and preparation of tisanes etc. They also provide all the 23 herbs that go in the special panchkarma oil for the body therapy treatments.

Many of the staff working at the clinic are themselves survivors from the gas explosion and water pollution, and some of their stories are told in The Bhopal Marathon (www.bhopalmarathon.com). This gives them an added sense of loyalty and care for their own community.
The team at Sambhavna has also been in the forefront of research, especially into the use of Ayurveda herbal remedies used over the long-term. Sambhavna has won several international awards for this work. There are difficulties, however, as it is hard to find a research lab in India that is not open to corruption.

The really important difference between Sambhavna and the many government hospitals (as well as those in most other countries!) is the patient focus. It might be described as ‘patient first’. Everyone is given the same courtesy and respect, whether they live on the street and arrive ragged and unkempt or they are smart and live in a house. One client commented, “a good doctor is one whose kind manner alone removes 50% of the illness.” There is no caste distinction nor religious discrimination. One innovation whilst I was there was the creation of a patient group, where representatives of the community meet with Sambhavna staff to discuss matters of praise and concern and to develop new methods of working. It was already bearing fruit in the decision making.

One of the volunteer health workers, herself with two stillborn, deformed babies, has said that “ the happiness of selfless service is greater than all happiness. In each other we find strength and the joy of friendship. Yes, we are poor, but, working together, we can achieve unimaginable things.”

*two working mainly with allopathic approaches and two mainly with Ayurveda. There is also a gynaecologist