India tragedy has lessons for SA

It is sobering to realise that one of the worst industrial accidents in history occurred just over 40 years ago in the Indian city of Bhopal, when a toxic gas leak killed more than 3 500 people.

In the wake of the 1984 leak from the Union Carbide factory outside the city, 20 000 others succumbed and countless thousands more children suffered birth defects caused directly by the ingestion of the toxin by their mothers.

Why should something so far away and so far back in time concern us in South Africa? Because Bhopal’s story has lessons for us here.

The Indian authorities only this week removed hundreds of tons of toxic material from the area – despite decades of pleading from residents who said it was polluting their ground water and thus affecting their health.

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That cavalier treatment of ordinary people – by that we mean the poor and virtually powerless – has echoes every day here in South Africa.

Look, for example at the Hammanskraal sewage pollution problem, which caused a number of deaths in the area, and how long it took authorities to do anything.

Then, much like the case in Bhopal, many polluting industries or mines here are situated in close proximity to communities – and most of the time without their knowledge or informed consent.

Groundwater pollution in these communities – from industrial and mining-related activities – causes myriad health problems. The health has been compromised of vast numbers of people living in Mpumalanga and Limpopo close to coal-fired power stations – to say nothing of those further afield affected by the stations’ pollution.

Yet our government remains hellbent on pursuing coal as an energy source and to allowing Eskom especially to flout environmental health regulations.

Don’t say Bhopal couldn’t happen here… maybe it already is.

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