Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA), a voluntary group representing the victims of 1984 gas tragedy at the Union Carbide, has demanded for clean and potable water for the affected families.

On the night of December 2, 1984, tonnes of a toxic gas leaked from the pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide, killing 3,800 people almost immediately.

Salinath Sandgi, Convenor of the BGIA, said that people who were affected by the gas tragedy were still being forced to drink polluted water, as chemicals lying in and around the site have seeped into the earth and contaminated the groundwater sources.

“On behalf of three organisations working for the victims of the Bhopal gas holocaust, we are asking the Madhya Pradesh Government that if they do not provide clean drinking water to the villages around the Union Carbide plant, we will, on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy on December 2-3, take serious action, and the Government will be responsible for it,” said Salinath Sandgi.

“For the past 19 years, the State Government knows that almost 25 to 30 thousand people living near the Union Carbide factory have been drinking polluted water,” Sandgi added.

He further said that people, who had initially survived the disaster, are dying a slow and painful death by drinking the polluted water.

“Till now, out of the 14 villages, nine villages are drinking polluted water and suffering from diseases like cancer, and there are many instances of the children being handicapped due to consumption of the contaminated water,” Sandgi added.