It is now learnt that ``high quantities'' of mercury had been dumped in the tarry residues (wastes). The mercury was present in the seal pots of the chemical reactor in the sevin plant, sevin being one of the pesticides manufactured by Carbide.

The seal pots broke down either due to corrosion or other factors, spilling the mercury it contained. While the mercury was recovered, the seal pots which still contained a high amount of mercury, were dumped along with the rest of the wastes, according to a source whowishes to remain anonymous. As a result of this, a proposal to use the tarry residues as fuel for cement kilns had to be abandoned as mercury is highly volatile and toxic long term exposure to organic or inorganic mercury can permanently damage the brain, kidneys and developing foetuses.

The wastes pose a hazard to the communities living around the plant, though the state government denies this. Little red boards have come up in adjoining slums near the factory warning its citizens not to drink the water from the tubewells. But the residents have absolutely no choice but to use the water. The sunlight glints on the brass buckets and pots in which the women fill the contaminated water. ``Where else can we get water?'' said a resident of Atal Ayub Nagar, lugging her foul smelling burden away.

Men, women and children drink bathe and wash their clothes in the water despite the fact that 200 handpumps have been declared unfit for human consumption, according to the state government, affecting more than10,000 people. Residents of Atal Ayub, Annu Nagar, Nawab Nagar, New Arif Nagar located around the pesticide plant, now have to contend with contaminated water, apart from their other and more life-consuming sufferings.

Residents feel the main source of pollution is the solar evaporation ponds which store sludge and waste dumped in the Union Carbide plant premises which is stacked in rotting drums. According to the Multinational Monitor, Carbide has shown little regard for the environment or worker safety. It still refuses to accept responsibility for the tragic gas leak in Bhopal in December 1984.

The waste disposal system of Carbide in Bhopal was highly suspect even before the disaster. Waste was dumped in open pits and later into solar evaporation ponds. Toxic effluents were discharged for many years into the open sewage drains nearby. The plastic lining of the solar evaporation ponds (to prevent seepage) was often taken away by indigent slumdwellers who used it to cover the roofs of their houses.There were some attempts made to landfill the ponds which increased the risk of soil and water contamination.

A report of the public health engineering (PHE) department in Bhopal, dated October 28, 1996, (which has been leaked recently) shows the ground water is contaminated with bacteria and there is a heavy presence of chemicals. Ten samples were collected from JP Nagar, Atal Ayub Nagar, Arif Nagar, Chhola and Kainchi Chhola, all situated close to the Union Carbide factory in November '96 and tested at the State Research Laboratory.

In April 1990, the Bhopal Goup for Information and Action (BGIA) sent samples to the Citizen's Environmental Laboratory, Boston, to analyse sediment from the waste storage area, surface soils near the plant and drinking water from the adjacent community. High levels of toxic materials were found in the samples from the waste storage area and another highly toxic substances, dichlorobenzene, was found in the drinking water.

In 1985, a few months after the accident, thethree large effluent ponds were already posing a threat to local cattle and people were complaining of water contamination. The Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udhyog Sangathan and the BGIA have repeatedly highlighted the environmental damage that continues to be caused by the Carbide plant. The reports of the government agencies remain inaccessible to the people who live without basic amenities.

V.K. Jain, chairperson of the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board, confirmed that the tarry residues did indeed contain ``not negligible'' quantities of mercury. He said, however, that since the entire area was covered with black cotton soil, it was a natural barrier for any leakage into the soil or underground water. Further, the geological formation was such that the wastes could not seep down. Besides, according to him, the wastes were not soluble in water. Refuting the claim that the Carbide factory was responsible for water pollution around the plant area, he said that the COD could be high due to industrial andhuman waste. The population of the area had gone up to 1.5 lakh and this could be a significant factor.

He has not seen the PHE department's report and said it could be "bogus" and the samples could have been collected from anywhere. The samples of water have been tested by NEERI and no contamination was detected, he said. He clarified that people were restrained from drinking the tubewell water as the shallow tubewells may not have been constructed properly without the right amount of casing which could cause pollution, he clarified.

He also confirmed that 48 tonnes of tarry residues were to be incinerated but the plan was aborted after the discovery of mercury. Now NEERI and the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, had been asked to design a dedicated incinerator which would separate the mercury and burn the rest of the wastes. He said the wastes in three solar evaporation ponds were all dumped into a single pond with cement boundaries to create a secure landfill. The state government,which has also taken possession of the factory and the 87 acres in which it is situated, maintains that there are no harmful chemicals on the premises. It intends to create a memorial there.

In November 1993, the management of Union Carbide India limited (UCIL), now Eveready Industries Ltd, approached NEERI to examine the materials dumped and to evaluate its impact. NEERI and Arthur D Little, a consultant for UCIL, prepared the procedures to be adopted. The executive summary of NEERI's 1994 report said that the total waste disposal area was 6.4 hectares or 21 per cent of the total plant premises.

It found that 17 sites were contaminated and more than half of one disposal area required remedial measures. Groundwater was also analysed with samples from 14 existing wells outside the UCIL premises within a 1.5 km radius and it was found to be uncontaminated by pesticides from the plant. The disposal area near the formulation plant was highly contaminated up to one metre depth with sevin, temik, alpha naptholand lindane, but groundwater contamination was ruled out.

The Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board constituted a committee in July 1994 to look into the methods of treatment and disposal to be adopted in the plant. The committee which visited the site in May 1995, recommended shifting the wastes to a safe shed within the premises of the plant. Tarry residues generated during the manufacture of sevin and alpha napthol were stored in drums, troughs and HDPE bags. Later, in 1997 the ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) constituted another expert committee to explore the possibility of shifting the tarry residues to a safe area.

This committee found on its visit in October 1997 that most of the drums were corroded and HDPE bags were also in a bad condition and recommended that they be shifted to a safer place as suggested earlier. The residue after melting had spread on the floor and this could spread outside the shed. The company even constructed a brick barricade of 30 cm to divert rain water awayfrom the shed.

Yet these are lackadaisical, uncoordinated measures. Despite evidence of a serious pollution threat in the area, the government is still dragging its feet on the issue. The residents, meanwhile, continue to live in fear of being poisoned. It seems the nightmare of December 1984 will never go away.